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 yellow pages and searching for their name. This has become more complicated now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.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 development of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their details from coming up. Reverse phone lookup directories have responded to these changing demands to provide a very useful service to modern phone users.
There are two common functions for lookup directories.
Finding 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 listed to the number in question. Just by typing in the number you will be able to identify whoever is responsible for those phone calls in question.
People needing lookup directories include those who need to check up on a number constantly texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to identify a name connected to a landline that may be unlisted. Anytime you have a phone number but are uncertain who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup directory can deliver the information.
Searching for Addresses
The other typical purpose is to locate an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the contact information linked with a specific number most directories will give additional information as well, which includes the address of an landline or an address listed to a cell phone number.
This may not be a typical need for most people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. Such as a parent needing to locate a teenager who has run away or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly tell them addresses as well as names of places the child may be at that time.
More common circumstances may be searching for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have a phone number you can access their address and easily deliver the invite without calling or tracking down other busy people.
Lookup websites can also deliver a connection to other various types of data, such as income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint to the business or home's location.
There is a small charge for any legitimate reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life requires accurate data it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is required because this sort of information is not easy or completely free to research, collect, and protect, so issuing it as needed to people like you must also come with a fee to make up for such operational expenditures.
There probably will never be a public directory 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 only way to gain access to these phone numbers is to pay a minor charge either to do a single phone number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the service on a regular basis.