Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and locating a phone number or address simply required opening the yellow pages and locating their name. Things have grown more complicated now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the invention of caller ID on most home phones, some numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their name from coming up. Reverse phone lookup services have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very valuable service to modern phone users.

There are two typical uses for lookup directories.

Searching for Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you want to figure out cell 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 responsible for the phone calls in question.

People needing such services include those who need to check up on a number often calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they need to find a name connected to a home phone that is unlisted. Whenever you have a phone number but aren't sure who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can deliver the information.

Finding Addresses

The other common function is to identify an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you plug into the contact information associated with a certain number most services will give additional information as well, such as the address of the landline 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 some situations. For example, take a parent needing to track down a teenager who has run off or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly reveal addresses and names of places the teenager may be at that time.

Other situations may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have a phone number you can get their address and mail out the invitation without calling and tracking down other busy parents.

These services can also deliver a connection to other kinds of data, such as income brackets and address histories, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There is a minor fee for any up to date reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life demands certain data it is worth the money in the long run. The fee is unavoidable because this variety of information is not easy or completely free to research, collect, and store, so dispensing it as needed to others like you must also include a charge to make up for such serviceable expenditures.

There likely will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if there were it is probable a lot of the numbers would be unpublished just like many landline numbers today. The best way to get access to such phone numbers is to pay a minor fee either to do a one time number search or to join a lookup service if you will be using the service long term.