Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a phone number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and locating the name. This has become 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 unlisted.

Even with the development of caller ID on most landlines, many numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their name from appearing. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very useful service to modern phone users.

There are two typical functions for lookup services.

Finding Names

If you are getting 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 in question. Just by entering the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is initiating the bothersome phone calls.

People in search of this service include those who need to check up on a number constantly calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they want to know a name connected to a landline that may be unlisted. Anytime you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup service can help.

Finding Addresses

another common use is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the information connected with a certain number most services will deliver other sorts of information as well, which may include the address of an home phone or an address listed to a cell phone number.

This may not be an everyday need for some people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. For instance, consider a parent needing to locate a teenager who has run away or has not returned home long after 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 located.

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

Lookup directories can also deliver a connection to other kinds of data, 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 minor fee for any up to date reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal life demands accurate data it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is required because this variety of information is not simple or completely free to research, collect, and save, so distributing it on demand to people like you must also include a fee to make up for these working costs.

There more than likely will never be a public directory for cellular numbers, and even if there were most likely the majority of the numbers would be unlisted just like many landline numbers today. The only way to gain access to such numbers is to pay a nominal fee either to complete a one time number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the service long term.