The Internet is sometimes accused of isolating people by encouraging us to sit in front of a glowing computer screen for hours at a time.

Though that may be partly true, services like Alumni.NET are actually bringing many of us closer together.

The free service specialises in making it easy to track former friends, business colleagues or school classmates through its website. The service which began with one high school in 1994 has more than 70,000 organisations with two million members around the world, including 15,000 in Australia.

Visitors to the site can sift for information on individuals or organisations located in more than 90 countries. Starting from the macro level, searchers can begin their hunt by selecting a country such as Australia on the site's global home page. From there search can be refines to the name of a city, suburb and organisation or school located there.

Visitors who want to be found can leave their email address on the site for those who follow. And searches can post requests that will help put them in touch, or send an email direct. The president of the site's parent company, Infophil, Eric Tomacruz, says the success of Alumni.NET is testament to the global reach of the Internet.

"One day I believe we will become the White Pages of the Internet. If you want to find someone, you'll come to us," Tomacruz says.

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