It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a phone number or address simply required opening the yellow pages and searching for 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 unlisted.
Even with the development 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 details from coming up. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing demands to provide a very timely service to resourceful phone users.
There are two common functions for these directories.
Searching for Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you want to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the phone number of concern. Just by entering the number you will have access to whoever is behind the phone calls in question.
People needing this service include those wanting to check up on a number often texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they need to find a name connected to a home phone that may be unlisted. If you have a number but aren't sure who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup directory can deliver the information.
Searching for Addresses
another typical purpose is to identify an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you find the contact information linked with a specific phone number most directories will give additional information as well, which may include the address of the landline or the address connected to a cell phone number.
This may not be a common need for most people, but it does have its uses in some situations. For instance, consider a parent desperate to track down a teenager who has run away or is still out long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's belongings 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 situations may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have the phone number you can find their address and easily deliver the invite without calling or tracking down other busy parents.
These services can also give you access to other kinds of data, including income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint to the business or home's location.
There will be a minor fee for any up to date reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal situation demands particular information it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is unavoidable because this sort of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and protect, so dispensing it on demand to consumers like you must also include a charge to account for such working expenditures.
There likely will never be a public directory for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely the majority of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many landline numbers today. The only way to get access to such phone numbers is to put up a nominal charge either to do a single number search or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.