It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a phone number or address simply required opening the phone book and locating their name. It is often more difficult 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 invention of caller ID on most landlines, 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 services have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.
There are two typical uses for lookup services.
Searching for Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you want to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name registered to the number in question. Just by typing in the number you will be able to identify whoever is initiating the phone calls in question.
People in search of this service include those who need to identify a number often phoning their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they need to find a name connected to a home phone that may be unpublished. Anytime you have a phone number but are uncertain who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup service can assist you.
Locating Addresses
The other common purpose is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you gain access to the contact information linked with a specific number most directories will deliver other sorts of data as well, which includes the address of an landline or an address associated with a cell phone number.
This may not be an everyday need for most people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. For instance, consider a parent in a rush to locate a teenager who has run away or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of locations the teenager may be located.
Other situations may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's classmates. 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 parents.
Lookup websites can also give you a connection to other various types of information, 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 minor fee for any up to date reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life demands particular information it is more than worth the payoff in the end. The fee is required because this sort of information is not simple or completely free to research, collect, and protect, so distributing it as needed to consumers like you must also collect a fee to cover these operational costs.
There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable the majority of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many landline numbers today. The best way to gain access to these phone numbers is to put up a minor fee either to complete a single number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory long term.