Finger:

 An Internet tool for locating people on other sites.

 Finger can also be used to give access to non-personal information, but the most common use is to see if a person has an account at a particular site. 

Finger was one of the first computer network applications. It enabled people to see who else was using the computer system as well as find basic information on that user.  To find information about a specific user, it was necessary to know that person's email address.  For example, in response to the command Finger atstarr@unix.amherst.edu a computer running the Finger program would respond with the following information:

Login name: atstarr             In real life: Andrew Starr

Office: Kansas City             Home phone:  555-5555

Last login Mon Nov  8 13:22 on ttyre from sdn-ar-001mokcit

Plan:

To come so far one must be brave.

ATStarr@Amherst.Edu

http://www.amherst.edu/~atstarr/menu.html

            Typical information provided by Finger would be a person's real name, their office location and phone number, and they last time they logged in.  Users also could modify the plan field to add whatever text they wished.  In this example, Andrew added a quotation, his email address, and the URL for his web page.