Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and searching for a number or address simply required opening the yellow pages and finding 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now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the invention of caller ID on most home phones, a lot of numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing demands to provide a very valuable service to modern phone users.

There are two typical uses for these services.

Finding Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you need to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name registered to the phone number of concern. Just by typing in the phone number you will have access to whoever is initiating those calls of concern.

People looking for such services include those who need to check up on a number constantly phoning their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to identify a name registered to a landline that may be unlisted. Anytime you have a phone number but are uncertain who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can deliver the information.

Finding Addresses

another typical purpose is to locate an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the contact information connected with a specific number most directories will give other sorts of data as well, which may include the address of the home phone or the address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be a typical need for some 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 well past curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses as well as names of locations the child may be at that time.

Other situations may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have the phone number you can get their address and easily deliver the invite without calling or tracking down other busy parents.

These services can also give you a connection to other sorts of data, such as 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 small charge for any legitimate reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal situation requires accurate data it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is required because this kind of information is not easy or completely free to research, pull together, and protect, so distributing it on demand to others like you must also come with a charge to account for such operational expenditures.

There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if there were it is probable a lot of the numbers would be unlisted just like many landline numbers right now. The best way to obtain access to these numbers is to put up a small charge either to do a one time number search or to join a lookup service if you will be using the directory on a regular basis.