It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a phone number or address simply required opening the white pages and locating their name. This has become 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, some numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from coming up. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing times to offer a very useful service to resourceful phone users.

There are two common uses for these directories.

Locating Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you want to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name listed to the phone number in question. Just by typing in the number you will be able to identify the person who is initiating those bothersome phone calls.

People looking for this service include those wanting to check up on a number frequently texting 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 Other people may use this when they need to know a name connected to a home phone that may be unpublished. Anytime you have a phone number but don't know who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup website can help.

Finding Addresses

another typical 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 give additional data as well, such as the address of the home phone or the address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be an everyday need for most people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. Such as a parent needing to find 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 reverse phone lookup could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of locations the teenager may be located.

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 access their address and get the invite in the mail without calling or tracking down other busy parents.

Lookup directories can also deliver access to other various types of data, such as income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There will be a minor fee for any legitimate reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal situation requires certain data it is worth the money in the end. The charge is unavoidable because this kind of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and save, so dispensing it on demand to people like you must also come with a charge to cover these serviceable costs.

There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely a lot of the numbers would be unlisted just like many home phone numbers right now. The best way to gain access to such phone numbers is to pay a small charge either to complete a one time number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the service long term.