How to search someone on facebook without them knowing

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Do you want to check out somebody's Facebook profile but don't have your own account? It's very difficult to look at Facebook profiles without an account or logging in, but there's usually a way to do so. Although you'll be able to determine whether or not your selected user has an active Facebook account, you cannot view their full profile (e.g., their basic information, their photos, or their posting history) without signing up for Facebook yourself. This wikiHow teaches you a few workarounds that work to show you how to view a limited amount of a Facebook user's profile without having to sign up.

Things You Should Know

• You can search Google for the person's full name and "site:facebook.com" to find a limited public version of their profile.
• If you can't find the person with Google, you can create an anonymous Facebook account and use it just for browsing peoples' profiles.
• When all else fails, ask a friend who uses Facebook to look up the profile and send you a screenshot.

1. 

   1

   Go to https://www.google.com in your web browser. If the person you're looking for has not restricted their privacy settings, you may be able to view a limited version of their Facebook profile by searching for them in Google.

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   Type site:facebook.com "First Last" into the search bar. Replace the word "First" with your user's first name and "Last" with their last name.

   • For example, you might type site:facebook.com "Old MacDonald".

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3. 

   3

   Press ⏎ Return (Mac) or ↵ Enter (PC). This will search for your selected user in the context of Facebook pages.

4. 

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   Click a search result. Doing so will open the user's profile in limited view; in most cases, you'll be able to see their profile image and name.

   • You can also use an image search to confirm that the profile for which you're searching matches a result.

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1. 

   If you couldn't find the account in Google, create an anonymous Facebook account specifically for browsing peoples' profiles. Even if you don't want to be a regular Facebook user, creating a fake Facebook account will keep your anonymity, but allow you to log into Facebook and search users.

   • If you don't want to use your real email address on Facebook, you can set up a disposable address.

1. 

   If you know somebody who uses Facebook, ask them to look up the profile. Lots of people are on Facebook, so finding a friend who uses the service won't be hard. Have your friend take a screenshot and send it to you, or just browse the profile when you're together.

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• Question

  How do I follow someone on Facebook without friending them?

  

  This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  To follow someone on Facebook without friending them, use the "Follow" button on that person’s Timeline or profile page; just click on this and you’ll be following that person without friending them. However, you’ll only find one of these if the person’s privacy settings allow this and it won’t be there if the person has set these to disallow non-friend follows (this setting is under "Who Can Follow Me" and needs to be set to "Everyone" for follows to work without friending).

• Question

  Can you look at Facebook messages without them knowing?

  

  This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  This answer assumes you’re referring to Facebook Messenger. To read the message without alerting the sender, you’ll need to disconnect from the internet by going into Airplane Mode on your phone. Read it, then close Messenger and return to the connected mode. On a computer, if you’re using Chrome, you can use an extension called Unseen, which you’ll need to download first; for Firefox, use the Add-on, Message Seen Disable. For both browser extensions, follow the instructions they provide.

• Question

  Can you search Facebook without an account?

  

  This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  You can search Facebook without an account but some of your search will have limited returns. First, you can use Facebook’s own Facebook Directory or Facebook People Search facilities to search for information within Facebook. Outside of these facilities, you can use social search engines such as Pipl and Social Searcher. Then, there is the usual standby of using Google Search to search a website by using the standard search string of site:sitename.com query. As well, the steps above explain how to look at a Facebook profile without signing up, but realize you won’t be able to see as much as someone signed in.

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