Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a phone number or address simply required opening the phone book and searching for their name. Things have grown more complex now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unlisted.

Even with the widespread use of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from showing up. Reverse phone lookup services have responded to these changing demands to offer a very useful service to modern phone users.

There are two typical uses for these directories.

Locating Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you need to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name listed to the phone number of concern. Just by entering the number you will be able to identify whoever is initiating those calls of concern.

People looking for this service include those who need to identify a number constantly phoning their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no accessible directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they want to know a name listed to a landline that may be unlisted. If you have a number but don't know who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can help.

Finding 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 particular number most directories will deliver additional information as well, which may include the address of an landline or an address connected to a cell phone number.

This may not be a typical need for some people, but it does have its uses in some situations. For example, take a parent needing to track down a teenager who has run away or is still out well past curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of locations the child may be located.

More common circumstances may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's friends. 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 directories can also deliver a connection to other kinds of data, such as income brackets and address histories, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint to the business or home's location.

There will be a minor fee for any legitimate reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal situation requires certain data it is more than worth the payoff in the long run. The fee is required because this kind of information is not simple or completely free to research, compile, and store, so dispensing it as needed to others such as you must also collect a fee to make up for these serviceable costs.

There probably will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely a lot of the numbers would be unpublished just like many landline numbers today. The only way to obtain access to these phone numbers is to pay a minor fee either to do a one time phone number search or to join a lookup service if you will be using the service on a regular basis.