Web reveals hidden lives

Piesakowski: Learnt much about his neighbours

Putting your postcode into a search engine can reveal a wealth of information about your neighbours, as BBC News Online reader Tad Piesakowski found out.

On the face of it my street appears as normal as any residential road in London - net curtains, front gardens, parking problems, TV aerials and green recycling boxes.

Yet I have recently learnt that one of my neighbours is organising a Christmas party for his waterways restoration society, another runs a driving school, while a third stood unsuccessfully for councillor at the last local elections.

But I have never met any of these people. Am I a local busybody? No, I just tried out the geographical equivalent of what has been called vanity surfing.

Varied results

This usually involves entering your name in a popular search engine such as Google and seeing what comes up.

Have you tried your postcode?

In this case, I used my postcode as the only search criteria, ensuring that the whole thing was in quote marks.

A full postcode will typically cover 15 addresses but on occasion it will extend to include the whole side of a road.

What tends to come up on the web? Well, if you live above or near to a promenade of shops, expect links or references to them to dominate.

However, on purely residential roads, the results prove to be more varied and unexpected.

Frequently, you will uncover a business run from home or maybe a personal home page.

If you get little coming up, expand your search by stripping a few characters off the end of your postcode, thereby searching in a larger area known as a postal sector.

Whilst the results may not be ultimately useful, in all likelihood you will see your neighbours in a new light.