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 the name. Things have grown more difficult now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the development of caller ID on most landlines, a lot of numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their details from showing up. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very timely service to modern phone users.

There are two common functions for these directories.

Finding Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you want to figure out cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name listed to the phone number in question. Just by typing in the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is behind those phone calls in question.

People in search of lookup directories include those wanting to check up on a number often phoning their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they need to know a name registered to a landline that may be unpublished. Whenever you have a number but aren't sure who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can deliver the information.

Locating Addresses

The other common use is to identify an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the contact information linked with a certain phone number most directories will deliver other sorts of information as well, which may include the address of an landline or the address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be an everyday need for some people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. For example, take a parent in a rush to locate a teenager who has run off or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses and names of places the child may be at that time.

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

Lookup websites can also give you access to other various types of data, 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 relevant reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life requires accurate data it is worth the money in the long run. The charge is necessary because this sort of information is not easy or completely free to research, collect, and save, so dispensing it on demand to people such as you must also come with a charge to cover such serviceable expenditures.

There more than likely will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely a lot of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many home phone numbers right now. The best way to obtain access to these numbers is to give a minor fee either to do a one time number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will be using the service on a regular basis.