It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and locating a number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and finding their name. This has become more complex 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 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 details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup services have stepped up to these changing times to offer a very timely service to modern phone users.

There are two typical functions for these services.

Locating Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name registered to the phone number of concern. Just by entering the number you will be able to identify whoever is behind the bothersome phone calls.

People looking for such services include those wanting to check up on a number frequently phoning their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they want to find a name connected to a home phone that may be unpublished. Anytime you have a number but aren't sure who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup service can deliver the information.

Finding Addresses

The other common use is to identify 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 services will deliver additional information as well, which may include the address of the landline or the address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be a common need for some people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. For example, take a parent desperate to track down a teenager who has run away or is still out long after curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses as well as names of places the teenager may be at that time.

Other situations may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have the phone number you can access their address and mail out the invitation without calling and tracking down other busy people.

Lookup websites can also give you access to other various types of data, like income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint of the most current location.

There is a small charge for any relevant reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal situation requires certain data it is worth the money in the long run. The charge is required because this sort of information is not easy or completely free to research, collect, and store, so dispensing it as needed to others such as you must also collect a fee to cover such serviceable expenditures.

There 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 just like many landline numbers right now. The only way to gain access to such numbers is to put up a minor fee either to do a one time number search or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the directory long term.