It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and locating a phone number or address simply required opening the phone book and searching for the name. It is often more difficult now that cell phones are widely used 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 landlines, many numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from appearing. Reverse phone lookup services have responded to these changing times to offer a very useful service to modern phone users.
There are two common uses for these directories.
Searching for Names
If you are getting calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to figure out cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name registered to the number of concern. Just by entering the number you will have access to the person who is responsible for those calls of concern.
People needing this service include those wanting to check up on a number often 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 Other people may use lookup directories when they want to know a name registered to a landline that may be unpublished. If you have a phone number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can deliver the information.
Searching for Addresses
The other common use is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you plug into the information linked with a specific number most services will deliver additional information as well, which may include the address of the landline or an address listed to a cell phone number.
This may not be a typical need for most people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. For example, take a parent in a rush to track down a teenager who has run off or is still out well past curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses as well as names of places the teenager may be at that time.
Other circumstances may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have the phone number you can find their address and easily deliver the invite without calling or tracking down other busy people.
These services can also deliver access to other various types of information, like income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint of where the home or business is located.
There is a minor fee for any legitimate reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal life demands accurate data it is money well spent in the end. The charge is required because this variety of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and save, so issuing it on demand to others such as you must also include a charge to account for these serviceable costs.
There likely will never be a phone book 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 such phone numbers is to put up a nominal charge either to do a single number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the directory on a regular basis.