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now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the invention of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from showing up. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing times to provide a very valuable service to modern phone users.

There are two typical functions for these directories.

Locating 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 registered to the phone number in question. Just by entering the number you will have access to the person who is initiating the calls of concern.

People looking for lookup directories include those who need to identify a number constantly texting their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use lookup directories when they need to identify a name registered to a landline that may be unlisted. Whenever you have a phone number but are uncertain who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can assist you.

Searching for Addresses

The other common function is to locate an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you find the information connected with a certain number most directories will deliver other sorts of information as well, which may include the address of the home phone or an address listed to a cell phone number.

This may not be a typical need for most people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. For example, take a parent in a rush to locate a teenager who has run off or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can find phone 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.

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

These services can also give you a connection to other various types of information, including income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There is a nominal price for any up to date reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life demands particular data it is worth the money in the long run. The fee is unavoidable because this sort of information is not easy or completely free to research, pull together, and store, so issuing it on demand to consumers like you must also include a charge to cover such serviceable costs.

There likely will never be a public directory for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable many of the numbers would be unpublished just like many landline numbers today. The only way to gain access to these numbers is to pay a nominal charge either to do a one time number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the service long term.