Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and searching for a number or address was a matter of opening the yellow pages and finding their name. Things have grown 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now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

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

There are two common functions for these directories.

Searching for Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you need to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the phone number of concern. Just by entering the number you will have access to whoever is initiating the calls of concern.

People in search of this service include those who need to check up on a number frequently phoning their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no accessible directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they need to identify a name registered to a home phone that may be unpublished. Anytime you have a number but don't know who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup directory can help.

Finding Addresses

The other typical use is to locate an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you gain access to the contact information linked with a particular phone number most directories will give additional information as well, such as the address of an landline or the address listed to a cell phone number.

This may not be a common need for most people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. Such as a parent desperate to track down a teenager who has run away or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses and names of locations the child may be located.

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

Lookup websites can also give you a connection to other sorts of information, like income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint to the business or home's location.

There will be a nominal price for any up to date reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal situation demands particular information it is more than worth the payoff in the long run. The fee is unavoidable because this kind of information is not simple or free to research, compile, and store, so distributing it immediately to consumers such as you must also collect a fee to cover such working expenditures.

There more than likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable many of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many landline numbers right now. The only way to obtain access to such numbers is to put up a nominal fee either to complete a one time phone number search or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the service on a regular basis.