It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and searching for a number or address was a matter of opening the yellow pages and searching for 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 invention of caller ID on most landlines, some numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their details from showing up. Reverse phone lookup services have responded to these changing demands to provide a very useful service to modern phone users.

There are two typical uses for these directories.

Searching for Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you want to figure out cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the number in question. Just by typing in the phone number you will have access to the person who is initiating the calls of concern.

People looking for such services include those wanting to identify a number constantly texting 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 Other people may use this when they need to know a name listed to a landline that may be unpublished. If you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup directory can deliver the information.

Locating Addresses

The other common function is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the information connected with a specific number most services will deliver other sorts of data as well, which includes the address of the landline or the address listed to a cell phone number.

This may not be a common need for some people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. For instance, consider 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 uncover addresses as well as names of locations the child may be located.

More common situations may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have a phone number you can get their address and easily deliver the invite without calling and tracking down other busy parents.

Lookup directories can also deliver access to other sorts of information, including income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint to the business or home's location.

There is a nominal price for any legitimate reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life demands particular information it is worth the money in the long run. The fee is unavoidable because this variety of information is not easy or free to research, pull together, and protect, so dispensing it as needed to people such as you must also collect a charge to account for such working costs.

There more than likely will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if there were most likely the majority of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many landline numbers today. The best way to gain access to such numbers is to give a minor fee either to complete a single number search or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory long term.