It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a number or address was a matter of opening the phone book and finding the name. It is often more complex now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unlisted.

Even with the widespread use of caller ID on most landlines, a lot of numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from showing up. Reverse phone lookup directories have responded to these changing demands to provide a very timely service to modern phone users.

There are two typical functions for these services.

Locating Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number shows on your ID, or you want to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the phone number of concern. Just by entering the phone number you will have access to the person who is responsible for those calls of concern.

People looking for such services include those who need to check up on a number frequently phoning their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no public 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 Other people may use this when they need to identify a name registered to a home phone that may be unpublished. If you have a phone number but don't know who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can assist you.

Finding Addresses

another common purpose is to find an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the contact information connected with a particular number most services will give other sorts of data as well, such as the address of the landline or an address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be a common need for some people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. Such as a parent needing to locate a teenager who has run off or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses and names of locations the teenager may be at that time.

More common circumstances may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have a phone number you can find their address and easily deliver the invite without calling and tracking down other busy people.

These services can also give you access to other various types of data, such as income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There will be a small charge for any up to date reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal situation requires certain data it is more than worth the payoff in the end. The charge is unavoidable because this sort of information is not easy or completely free to research, compile, and protect, so issuing it immediately to people such as you must also collect a fee to account for these serviceable costs.

There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if there were it is probable the majority of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many home phone numbers today. The only way to obtain access to these numbers is to give a nominal fee either to complete a single phone number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.