It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a phone number or address was a matter of opening the phone book and searching for their name. It is often more complex now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unlisted.

Even with the development 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 coming up. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing times to offer a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.

There are two common functions for these services.

Searching for Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your caller ID, or you want to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name listed to the number of concern. Just by entering the phone number you will be able to identify the person who is behind those calls of concern.

People looking for lookup directories include those wanting to identify a number frequently texting their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they need to find a name registered 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 service can assist you.

Finding Addresses

The other common function is to locate an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you gain access to the information connected with a specific phone number most directories will deliver additional information as well, which may include the address of an landline or an address listed to a cell phone number.

This may not be a typical need for some people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. For instance, consider a parent needing to locate a teenager who has run away or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses and names of places the teenager may be located.

More common circumstances may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have the phone number you can get their address and get the invite in the mail without calling or tracking down other busy people.

Lookup websites can also give you a connection to other various types of information, including income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of the most current location.

There is a nominal price for any legitimate reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal situation demands certain data it is money well spent in the long run. The charge is required because this variety of information is not easy or free to research, collect, and protect, so dispensing it on demand to people such as you must also come with a fee to cover such serviceable costs.

There more than likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if there were most likely a lot of the numbers would be unpublished just like many home phone numbers today. The only way to get access to such numbers is to pay a small fee either to complete a single phone number search or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the service on a regular basis.