When you hear a name about a person whom you don't know personally, what is the first thing you would do? To me it totally depends on the context, and when the intention would be to know little more about the person, based on the context would issue a SEARCH online. If the context is at your work place, probably do a people search available in your intranet. If the context is outside your work place but in the vicinity of your work related arena, the search would be on Linked In. If the context is more personal my be a Social Search with mediums like Facebook and Orkut to see how well you are separated or to find the six degrees of separation between you and that person. And if the interest level is more, a search on the GOOGLE would give you more results. Based on the online foot print, to a certain extent you can gauge the personality of the person, be what ever context it might be. This consolidated foot print shall enable you to get going on how well you can connect with the other person. The new age social media has brought in a revelation where you could come to certain level of under standing about a particular person of interest. However what about people whose online foot print is very minimal, well we should resort the age old conventional models and it would be an intensive exercise on its own, and until the person meets face to face even the minimalistic judgment cannot be arrived at. My online foot print seems decent which encompasses the social collaboration networks (orkut,facebook,blogs,twitter), Work Place Network (Linked In, Oracle.com) and google in general highlighting my stint with various NGO's and other Social Sector Organizations. What is your online footprint?