It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and finding a phone number or address simply required opening the white pages and finding their name. Things have grown more difficult now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.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 landlines, many numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from showing up. Reverse phone lookup services have responded to these changing times to offer a very useful service to modern phone users.
There are two common uses for lookup directories.
Locating Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name registered to the phone number in question. Just by entering the number you will have access to whoever is responsible for those phone calls in question.
People in search of lookup directories include those wanting to identify a number often calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to identify a name registered to a home phone that may be unlisted. Anytime you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup directory can deliver the information.
Finding Addresses
another typical function is to find an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the contact information associated with a certain number most services will give additional data as well, which includes the address of the landline or an address connected to a cell phone number.
This may not be a typical need for most people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. Such as a parent in a rush to track down a teenager who has run off or has not returned home long after 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 locations the teenager may be at that time.
Other circumstances may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have their phone number you can find their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy people.
Lookup websites can also deliver access to other kinds of information, like income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint of the most current location.
There is a nominal price for any legitimate reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal life demands certain data it is more than worth the payoff in the end. The fee is necessary because this kind of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and store, so dispensing it immediately to others such as you must also include a fee to account for these serviceable expenditures.
There probably will never be a public directory for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely the majority of the numbers would be unlisted just like many home phone numbers right now. The best way to obtain access to such phone numbers is to put up a nominal charge either to complete a one time phone number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the service long term.