Does anyone know Jonny Howard who used to live in St Ives

Asks Phatboy

A. The AnswerBank does not have a 'f'ind a friend' facility, but hopefully the following information will help you start your search:

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Increasingly, the best way to find lost friends, relatives, missing persons etc. is to do so via the Internet. The best way to start is with a directory, before you hit the individual message sites. A few of the best are:

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Big Foot��- the biggest email address directory on the web, with over 8 million addresses (mostly US at present, but some UK coverage), the search facility is free.

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Infospace�� traces surnames and tries to match�them with a phonebook listing.

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192.com� allows you to search BT's 17 million directory enquiries records and 45 million names on the Voters Register.

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Q. How would I go about posting a message to find a friend I haven't heard from in years

A. Using a message posting service is very easy and you can do it on loads of websites, usually free of charge - your success depends, of course, on the person you're looking for recognising themselves or indeed looking at the website.

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The best way of going about this is to post the same message on several sites, in the hope that you'll have some luck. Try to remember specific personal things about the person e.g. brothers and sisters names, town where they lived, nickname, etc, this will make it easier for them to recognise themselves or for a third party to recognise the person you're looking for. Often it is friends of friends that unwittingly help out in a search.

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A few of the best sites for finding friends include:

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Missing You �-�contains more than 12,000 online messages that stay on the site for a year. The site aims to locate missing persons, lost friends, relatives, people for school/work reunions and old forces pals. You can search the online archive by name or geographical region. The site claims to have 350,000 monthly hits. It also has a direct link from the BBC's website as it assists in their ongoing 'The Search' campaign. It also has the facility to post photographs beside messages, for a small fee.

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Look Up UK� has 35,000 searchable messages and claims to be the most popular site in the UK.

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Vavo� is aimed at the over-45's. The site has a lot of good facilities - and its subject range i.e. school, armed forces etc is very extensive. The messages, however, are a bit bundled together so it takes quite a long time to trawl through them all.

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Reunite� allows you to search its entire database by surname only, once the site is loaded it works well, but it took half an hour for the home page to download when I tried it, so its not equipped for a quick hit.

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Q. Are there any sites that are more focused in their remit

A. There are a lot of armed forces sites online that are becoming increasingly popular. The Royal British Legion's site s great.�Its very comprehensive and quick and you get the feeling that because the organisation's brand is so well known, that this would be the first place an ex-serviceman or woman would look for their old friends.

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Where are they now is for ex-RAF personnel.

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School Friends� is another good site with a message board that attempts to reunite old school mates, it also has some links to existing school sites.

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Q. How do these sites finance themselves

A. The search service is usually free, with the site sponsored by advertising and/or donations from people that have been successful in their search. Searchers are encouraged to make several return visits to the sites to check on replies, which increases the hit rates of the sites. It can become quite addictive once you start searching, which is good news for all those advertisers.

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If you have any other Internet related questions, please click here

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By Karen Anderson