Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a number or address was a matter of opening the yellow pages and locating their name. Things have grown 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now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the invention of caller ID on most landlines, a lot of numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their details from showing up. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing times to offer a very timely service to modern phone users.

There are two typical functions for these services.

Finding Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you need to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name listed to the number in question. Just by typing in the number you will have access to whoever is behind the bothersome phone calls.

People looking for this service include those wanting to identify a number frequently phoning their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they need to know a name connected to a landline that may be unpublished. If you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can deliver the information.

Finding Addresses

another common function is to identify an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you gain access to the information linked with a particular phone number most services will give other sorts of data as well, which may include the address of the home phone or the address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be an everyday need for some people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. For example, take a parent desperate to locate a teenager who has run off or is still out long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses as well as names of locations the teenager may be at that time.

More common circumstances may be searching for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have the phone number you can access their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy people.

Lookup websites can also deliver access to other kinds of data, including income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint to the business or home's location.

There will be a nominal price for any relevant reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal life demands particular information it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is required because this kind of information is not simple or completely free to research, collect, and protect, so distributing it immediately to people such as you must also include a charge to make up for these working expenditures.

There probably will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if there were it is probable a lot of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many home phone numbers right now. The best way to get access to such phone numbers is to put up a small charge either to complete a single phone number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will be using the service long term.