How many people in this world are known to you? I am not asking only about your near and dear ones and those with whom you are in regular touch. I am asking about all those with whom you are acquainted. You do need some time- quite some time - to answer this question...
Everyday, we come into contact with some people. Some of them are well-known to us, some of them are 'sort of' known to us and others are new contacts. But the fact is that the list of people we know keeps growing day by day!
The 'list' could start from your childhood friends. Then there are those who were your neighbors in the town or village where we grew up. And then there are people who visited your homes - people whom you liked and wanted to have a long term relationship with.
Then we have friends we met in the schools, colleges and the places where we worked, lived and traveled to. Some of them have found a place in our memory and we can contact them any time over phone, through mail or in person without referring to any address/telephone book or directory. There are others who find a place in our address/telephone book.
But the largest category is one which comprises people whom we know but are not in touch with... There arise occasions, when we would like to contact them but locating them becomes an arduous and often unsuccessful task. People are the most valuable resources we have, more valuable than any of our other possessions. Nothing is a greater loss than our inability to contact people whose relationship we had so painstakingly cultivated at sometime in the past.
Here is where search engines come in, which facilitate free people search online.