Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and searching for a number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and finding the 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now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the widespread use of caller ID on most home phones, some numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their name from showing up. Reverse phone lookup services have responded to these changing times to provide a very valuable 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 shows 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 number of concern. Just by typing in the number you will be able to identify whoever is responsible for the phone calls in question.

People in search of such services include those wanting to check up on a number frequently calling their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no accessible directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to find a name connected to a home phone that may be unlisted. If you have a phone number but are uncertain who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can assist you.

Finding Addresses

another typical function is to find an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the information linked with a certain number most services will give other sorts of data as well, which includes the address of an landline or the address connected to a cell phone number.

This may not be an everyday need for most people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. For example, take a parent needing to track down a teenager who has run away or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup 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 peers. If you have the phone number you can find their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy family.

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

There is a nominal price for any relevant reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal situation requires accurate information it is worth the money in the end. The fee is required because this sort of information is not simple or free to research, compile, and protect, so distributing it immediately to consumers such as you must also include a charge to account for such working costs.

There probably 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 best way to get access to such phone numbers is to pay a small fee either to do a single phone number search or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the service on a regular basis.