Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a number or address simply required opening the phone book and searching for their name. Things have grown 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 development of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing demands to provide a very timely service to modern phone users.

There are two common functions for these directories.

Locating Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number comes up on your caller ID, or you want to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name registered to the phone number in question. Just by entering the number you will have access to whoever is initiating the phone calls in question.

People in search of lookup directories include those who need to identify a number often calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they need to know a name registered to a home phone that may be unlisted. Anytime you have a phone number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can assist you.

Searching for Addresses

another typical purpose is to find an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you find the information connected with a certain phone number most directories will deliver other sorts of data as well, which includes the address of an home phone or the address listed to a cell phone number.

This may not be an everyday need for most people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. Such as a parent in a rush to track down a teenager who has run off or is still out long after curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses and names of places the teenager may be located.

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

These services can also give you a connection to other sorts of data, such as income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint to the business or home's location.

There is a small charge for any up to date reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal situation demands certain data it is more than worth the payoff in the end. The charge is necessary because this variety of information is not simple or completely free to research, pull together, and save, so issuing it immediately to others like you must also come with a charge to make up for such working expenditures.

There probably will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if there were it is probable a lot of the numbers would be unlisted just like many landline numbers today. The best way to gain access to such phone numbers is to put up a minor fee either to do a single phone number search or to join a lookup service if you will be using the service on a regular basis.