It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and finding a number or address simply required opening the phone book and locating the name. It is often more difficult now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unlisted.
Even with the widespread use of caller ID on most landlines, many numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from coming up. Reverse phone lookup directories have responded to these changing demands to provide a very timely service to modern phone users.
There are two common uses for these directories.
Locating Names
If you are getting calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to figure out cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the phone number in question. Just by typing in the number you will be able to identify whoever is initiating the calls of concern.
People looking for such services include those wanting to identify a number constantly texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they want to identify a name connected to a landline that may be unpublished. Whenever you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup service can help.
Searching for Addresses
The other typical purpose is to find an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you gain access to the contact information linked with a specific phone number most directories will give additional data as well, which may include the address of the home phone or the address connected to a cell phone number.
This may not be an everyday need for some people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. Such as a parent needing to track down a teenager who has run off or is still out well past curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly tell them addresses as well as names of places the teenager may be at that time.
Other circumstances may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have a phone number you can get their address and get the invite in the mail without calling or tracking down other busy people.
Lookup directories can also give you a connection to other various types of information, including income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint to the business or home's location.
There will be a minor fee for any relevant reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal situation requires certain data it is worth the money in the end. The fee is required because this sort of information is not easy or completely free to research, pull together, and store, so dispensing it as needed to others such as you must also include a charge to account for these working costs.
There more than likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if there were it is probable a lot of the numbers would be unpublished just like many landline numbers today. The only way to get access to these numbers is to put up a small charge either to complete a one time phone number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.