Watson - Username Finder

Find any username across 700+ websites in seconds. The fast, cloud-based alternative to Sherlock that actually works on modern platforms like Instagram, Reddit, and More. Get only vaild results.

Why Watson over Sherlock?

Sherlock is a great open-source tool, but it breaks constantly and show false positive results. Sites change their layouts, add bot protection, or block requests, and Sherlock's results become unreliable. Watson solves this with a different approach:

• Cloud-powered - Runs on Apify infrastructure with built-in proxy rotation, no local setup headaches
• Smart detection - Uses both HTTP requests and real browser automation (Playwright) to handle JavaScript-heavy sites like Instagram and Facebook
• Always up-to-date - 708 sites and growing, with detection logic tuned for how platforms work today
• Parallel scanning - Checks all 700+ sites simultaneously, results in about 60 seconds
• Structured output - Clean JSON results ready for any workflow, API, or integration

What can you find?

Watson scans across 20+ categories:

Category	Sites	Examples
Social Media	209	Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, X/Twitter, Threads, Telegram
Gaming	77	Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Epic Games, Twitch
Coding	45	GitHub, GitLab, Stack Overflow, Docker Hub, npm, PyPI
Tech	43	HackerNews, Product Hunt, Keybase, dev.to
Creative	39	Behance, Dribbble, DeviantArt, ArtStation, Flickr
Music	19	Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Mixcloud
Video	8	YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Business	23	LinkedIn, AngelList, Crunchbase
Shopping	22	eBay, Etsy, Poshmark
+ 12 more categories	223	Dating, Finance, Health, News, Blogs...

Use cases

OSINT & Investigations

Map a person's digital footprint from a single username. Identify connected accounts, discover aliases, and build a complete online presence profile for background checks or investigations.

Brand Protection

Monitor if someone is impersonating your brand or registering your company name on platforms you haven't claimed yet. Run periodic checks to catch new unauthorized accounts early.

Username Availability

Planning a rebrand or launching a new product? Check if your desired username is available across all major platforms before committing to a name.

Competitive Intelligence

Discover where your competitors are active online. Find their community profiles, forum accounts, and niche platform presence beyond the obvious social media channels.

Journalism & Research

Verify sources by cross-referencing their claimed online identities. Find additional context about a subject across platforms they may not have mentioned.

Cybersecurity

During penetration testing or social engineering assessments, quickly enumerate a target's online accounts to understand their attack surface.

How it works

1. Enter a username - Just provide the username you want to search
2. Watson scans 700+ sites - HTTP requests for APIs and standard sites, real browser for JavaScript-heavy platforms
3. Get results - A clean list of every platform where that username exists, with direct profile links

Example output

Search for username johndoe:

[
  {
    "username": "johndoe",
    "site": "GitHub",
    "category": "coding",
    "url": "https://github.com/johndoe",
    "found": true
  },
  {
    "username": "johndoe",
    "site": "Instagram",
    "category": "social",
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/johndoe/",
    "found": true
  },
  {
    "username": "johndoe",
    "site": "Reddit",
    "category": "forum",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/johndoe",
    "found": true
  },
  {
    "username": "johndoe",
    "site": "Spotify",
    "category": "music",
    "url": "https://open.spotify.com/user/johndoe",
    "found": true
  },
  {
    "username": "johndoe",
    "site": "Steam",
    "category": "gaming",
    "url": "https://steamcommunity.com/id/johndoe",
    "found": true
  }
]

Input

Field	Type	Description
username	String (required)	The username to search for across all platforms

Output

Each found profile is saved as a dataset item with:

Field	Description
username	The searched username
site	Platform name (e.g., "Instagram", "GitHub")
category	Platform category (e.g., "social", "coding", "gaming")
url	Direct link to the profile
found	Always true in dataset (only found profiles are saved)

Integrations

Connect Watson to your existing workflow:

• Zapier / Make / n8n - Trigger actions when new accounts are found
• Google Sheets - Export results directly to a spreadsheet
• Slack / Email - Get notifications with found profiles
• API - Call Watson programmatically from any application
• Webhooks - Get real-time results pushed to your endpoint

FAQ

How accurate is Watson? Watson uses site-specific detection logic for each platform. For major sites (Instagram, Reddit, GitHub, etc.) accuracy is very high. Some smaller or heavily-protected sites may occasionally return false positives or be temporarily unavailable.

How fast is it? A full scan of all 700+ sites typically completes in 60-90 seconds thanks to parallel processing.

Does it work with any username? Yes. Just enter any username string and Watson will check it everywhere. Special characters are handled automatically for platforms that don't support them.

Can I run it on a schedule? Yes. Use Apify's scheduling feature to run Watson periodically and monitor for new accounts appearing under a specific username.

Is there an API? Yes. Every Apify Actor has a full REST API. You can start runs, get results, and integrate Watson into any application programmatically.