It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a phone number or address was a matter of opening the phone book and locating their name. Things have grown more complex now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.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 services have responded to these changing times to offer a very timely service to resourceful phone users.
There are two common uses for these directories.
Searching for Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you need to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name registered to the phone number in question. Just by typing in the number you will have access to the person who is behind the bothersome phone calls.
People in search of lookup directories include those who need to identify a number constantly 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 identify a name registered to a home phone that may be unlisted. Whenever you have a number but are uncertain who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can assist you.
Searching for Addresses
another typical function is to identify an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the contact information associated with a certain phone number most services will give additional information as well, which includes the address of the home phone or an address listed to a cell phone number.
This may not be a common need for some people, but it does have its uses in some situations. For instance, consider a parent needing to track down a teenager who has run off or is still out long after curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly reveal addresses and names of locations the child may be at that time.
Other circumstances 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 mail out the invitation without calling and tracking down other busy family.
Lookup directories can also give you a connection to other kinds of information, including income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of where the home or business is located.
There is a small charge for any legitimate reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life requires certain data it is more than worth the payoff in the end. The charge is required because this sort of information is not simple or completely free to research, compile, and store, so distributing it as needed to others such as you must also come with a charge to account for these operational expenditures.
There probably will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if there were most likely many of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many landline numbers today. The best way to obtain access to these numbers is to pay a minor charge either to complete a one time number search or to join a lookup service if you will be using the directory long term.