US Search Review

  • Jacob Wilson, iReviews
  • August 31,2022
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US Search Featured Image

US Search is a website with one main goal, to track down old friends and family members that you might have lost contact with. There are a few options in how it handles this that tries to work with the information you still have about a person. How well do I think it performs in its searches though?

 

US Search is stripped down and simple compared to a lot of other options out there which makes it a great first option. The information they dig into makes it simple to fill in the blanks you might have with an old friend’s whereabouts. This makes it great for finding where someone you knew ended up in the United States.

PROS
  • One of the longest-running person search programs around
  • Able to look for lost friends and family
  • Long-lasting support
  • Better search simple search options than other search engines
CONS
  • Limited amount of search types
  • Contains only the basic parts of a public record search engine
  • Not a product many will use frequently
  • Can be a bit slow
BOTTOMLINE

With several public record search engines out there and more cropping up each day I think it’s safe to say finding a good one is hard. That’s where old bastions like US Search can help. When a product has existed for decades on the internet, there has to be something about it that just works.

Product Features:

  • Search by name
  • Search by address
  • Search by phone number
  • Record opt-out process
  • Consumer support

What Is Us Search?

As I said, US Search has one goal it strives for. With all the information they gather they want to make it as simple as possible to reconnect with lost family and friends who you’ve not seen in potentially years. These searches are done through a few select options that make it easy to use the information you remember to track someone down.

The quality of the searches can be dictated by how much you already know. These searches can cast a wide net, pinning down every note of information that can be found. This can be helpful when you need one piece of information fast, but it won’t be able to grab a person’s identity out of thin air.

US Search Features

US Search comes with three different main types of searches. These options are to search by name, search by number, and search by address. These choices make up the backbone of any good public records search engine.

Doing a full search will prompt a series of questions about why you are searching and what type of information you are searching for. These questions can range from if you’re looking to contact the person you’re searching for to if you want to scour the internet for online information on an individual.

 

These help narrow searches down, and with that, it becomes a lot easier to pin a person down. However, all of this information can come at a cost with the membership nearing 20$ a month. That’s about the standard rate, if a bit higher, but it can still feel like a bit much compared to other subscription models.

US Search Test

 

I’ve found using US Search to have minimal options compared to other public record search engines I’ve used in the past. It doesn’t feel limited with all the basics being there, but it doesn’t offer anything extra that grabs my attention compared to the competition. It does have the baseline quality and tenure to back it up though.

 

US Search has hiccups just like any other public search engine. The bulk of these come from common names belonging to countless people in a similar area.

 

The search engine just doesn’t know who is the right person to pin down sometimes. This issue is a bit worse with US Search, but it’s not unique to it. Finding an individual just requires that you have some information on them already and that they have records to find.

 

Finding information on myself took around three tries to even get a bite. This is taking my common name into account, and I would call it the average number of attempts it takes these search engines to get the right person with my name.

 

For less common names this is going to be a near non-issue. Less common names get narrowed down fast when there are public records or an internet presence to draw from. It will still have a small chance of pulling up someone else, but with just a bit of knowledge on who you’re searching beforehand, that can be smoothed over.

 

Overall US Search handled the test runs alright. With me searching for a few test people and myself, I got a good idea of the scope of the product. There isn’t much to complain about other than those occasional bumps in the search and the lack of anything. That truly sets it apart.

Who’s Us Search For?

I feel there is one particular crowd that can get use out of US Search’s database. Anyone that requires finding friends and family who has no idea where to start. With US Search these people can at least be put on the right path.

 

I’m prefacing this with the notion that people should limit its use for personal reasons. Sign-up, try to reconnect with people, find out what your online presence and available records are, and know more about people.

US Search is a tool that some people downright shouldn’t use. There are obvious ones, like companies not being allowed to screen their employees before a promotion.

 

Anything that goes in a legal grey area or is an outright illegal use of screening people should be a clear reason not to use this service. Still, I wanted to make sure I made that as clear as possible here so that no one gets the wrong idea about what they should do with US Search.

What Are the Capabilities of Us Search?

US Search has stood the test of time to an impressive degree, but it has limits. The biggest one should be obvious given its name. If it’s not clear, it only draws from US records. This means that their product probably won’t work well for anyone that doesn’t have a presence within the United States.

A frequent issue I’ve found is that US Search has trouble when it comes to common names. This is a problem I’ve noticed with nearly every service like this, so it’s not an issue that I see going away anytime soon, but it feels like it’s worse here than normal. If you don’t have enough exact information about a person already it can be hard to pin them down against a backdrop of potentially hundreds or even thousands of people with the same name.

Should You Buy It?

US Search doesn’t have the cheapest membership options available, but it could still be to some people’s liking. There are other public search engines out there that do similar record searches to US Search, so it mostly comes down to preference.

 

There are a few reasons that you might use US Search if you’re interested in a public record search engine. If you want to track down a person you used to know they put a lot of effort into relaying the information they find with this goal in mind better than most other choices. However, this isn’t something I see people doing enough to justify having a long-term membership.

How to Buy a Us Search Membership

If you’re getting a US Search membership then you need to go to their website and sign-up for one. The link to their website where you can find the sign-up options is right here.

 

It can be worth it, but it’s best to get a feel for the service before investing long-term in it. If nothing else, they’ve been around long enough to have built up at least a bit of goodwill.

How Does Us Search Compare to the Alternatives?

US Search is one of the oldest options in a niche market. The way I see it, there is no shortage of options that offer similar services these days, but US Search has to be doing something right to still be standing. I’d like to go over a few of the more prominent ones to show that they’re all generally similar, but have key differences that set them apart.

 

Truthfinder is the gold standard of modern public record search engines. They offer the basics of the service with a wide variety of options available through their membership. If you want the most basic of search options, then they handle it better than any other service.

 

I will say Truthfinder is great but limited. It doesn’t offer quite as many search options as others and that holds it back. For example, while they have reverse phone lookup capabilities they don’t have the option for a reverse address lookup on their main page. However, it still offers more options than US Search does.

 

Instant Checkmate is another strong contender for a public record search engine. It offers the usual suspects of public records, reverse phone lookups, and criminal records searches while also offering one type of search I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else. The inmate search does exactly what it sounds like, it searches for inmates and convicts.

 

This is a niche search among niches, but if it’s what you’re after then Instant Checkmate is for you. Their free service also comes with a downside of being far slower than the other free options offered by other services while still being as limited. It’s a good option like any other, but it does have its irksome limitations.

Final Verdict

US Search is a quality product that might be showing its age a bit now. There may be a lot of public record search engines growing out there, and that means that there is good reason to check out more than just the oldest ones. That doesn’t mean US Search would be a bad option, though.

 

I think US Search is a product that someone wanting a membership would get a lot of use out of quickly, but then that use would dwindle over time. Finding people you’ve lost contact with can be so simple with US Search, but there are only going to be so many old friends that anyone will want to reconnect with.

I wouldn’t recommend US Search to everyone. Like I said before, there are legal grey areas when using this product. I wouldn’t recommend trying to use this to screen employees, tenets, or for anything else of that nature either.

 

If finding information on people you’ve lost contact with is your main goal when looking for a public records search engine, then there is no better service out there that I’ve yet to find. It’s a niche product, but it fills its niche well.

 

Resources and Further Reading
Jacob Wilson, iReviews

By Jacob Wilson, iReviews

Jacob Wilson is a young writer with several creative skills that they use day to day. They are passionate about their written work, friends, and the nature of the world.