It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and finding a phone number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and locating the name. It is often more complicated now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unlisted.
Even with the invention of caller ID on most landlines, some numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from showing up. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing demands to provide a very timely service to modern phone users.
There are two common functions for lookup directories.
Searching for Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you want to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can assist in finding the name registered to the phone number in question. Just by typing in the number you will be able to identify whoever is initiating those bothersome phone calls.
People needing this service include those wanting to identify a number frequently calling their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to know a name connected to a landline that is unpublished. If you have a number but are uncertain who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup directory can assist you.
Finding Addresses
The other common purpose is to find an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you find the information linked with a particular number most directories will deliver additional information as well, which may include the address of the landline or an address associated with a cell phone number.
This may not be a common need for most people, but it does have its uses in some situations. Such as a parent needing to find a teenager who has run away or is still out long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly tell them addresses and names of locations the child may be located.
Other circumstances may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have their phone number you can get their address and get the invite in the mail without calling or tracking down other busy family.
Lookup websites can also deliver access to other various types of data, such as income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint of where the home or business is located.
There will be a small charge for any legitimate reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal life requires particular information it is money well spent in the end. The charge is required because this variety of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and save, so distributing it on demand to others like you must also come with a charge to cover these working costs.
There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely the majority of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many home phone numbers today. The only way to obtain access to such phone numbers is to give a small fee either to do a single number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will be using the service on a regular basis.