It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a number or address was a matter of opening the yellow pages and locating their 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now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the development of caller ID on most landlines, many numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their details from showing up. Reverse phone lookup services have stepped up to these changing demands to provide a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.

There are two typical functions for lookup directories.

Finding Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your caller ID, or you want to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name listed to the phone number in question. Just by entering the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is initiating the calls of concern.

People looking for such services include those who need to check up on a number frequently phoning their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they need to find a name listed to a home phone that may be unpublished. Whenever you have a number but aren't sure who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can deliver the information.

Finding Addresses

The other common use is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you gain access to the information associated with a specific number most services will give additional information as well, which includes the address of an home phone or the address listed to a cell phone number.

This may not be a common need for most people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. For instance, consider a parent needing to track down a teenager who has run off or is still out well past curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly tell them addresses and names of places the teenager may be at that time.

More common situations may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have their phone number you can access their address and mail out the invitation without calling or tracking down other busy family.

Lookup websites can also give you access to other various types of information, like income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of the most current location.

There will be a nominal price for any up to date reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal situation requires particular data it is worth the money in the end. The charge is unavoidable because this variety of information is not simple or free to research, collect, and store, so issuing it on demand to consumers such as you must also include a fee to cover these working costs.

There likely will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if there were it is probable the majority of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many home phone numbers right now. The only way to get access to these phone numbers is to put up a small fee either to complete a one time number search or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.