It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a phone number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and finding the name. This has become 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now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.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 widespread use of caller ID on most home phones, a lot of numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup services have stepped up to these changing times to offer a very timely service to resourceful phone users.

There are two typical uses for these services.

Finding Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the number in question. Just by typing in the number you will have access to whoever is behind the phone calls in question.

People needing such services include those who need to check up on a number often phoning their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to find a name listed to a home phone that is unpublished. Whenever you have a number but aren't sure who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup directory can assist you.

Locating Addresses

another common purpose is to identify an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the information connected with a specific phone number most services will deliver additional information as well, which includes the address of the home phone or an address listed to a cell phone number.

This may not be a typical need for most people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. Such as a parent in a rush to locate a teenager who has run away or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses and names of locations the child may be located.

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

Lookup directories can also give you access to other kinds of data, including income brackets and address histories, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint to the business or home's location.

There is a nominal price for any up to date reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life demands certain data it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is unavoidable because this kind of information is not easy or free to research, collect, and store, so dispensing it as needed to consumers such as you must also come with a charge to account for such working costs.

There probably will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely the majority of the numbers would be unpublished just like many landline numbers today. The only way to obtain access to these phone numbers is to pay a minor charge either to do a single phone number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will be using the directory on a regular basis.