Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and finding a phone number or address was a matter of opening the phone book and locating their name. It is often more difficult now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.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 invention of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing demands to provide a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.

There are two common uses for these directories.

Locating Names

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

People looking for this service include those who need to check up on a number constantly 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 identify a name listed to a home phone that is unlisted. Anytime you have a number but aren't sure who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup website can deliver the information.

Locating Addresses

The other typical function is to find an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you find the contact information associated with a specific number most directories will give additional information as well, which includes the address of the home phone or the address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be a typical need for some people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. For example, take a parent desperate to track down a teenager who has run off or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses and names of locations the child may be located.

Other circumstances may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have the phone number you can get their address and easily deliver the invite without calling and tracking down other busy people.

These services can also give you access to other sorts of data, like income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There will be a nominal price for any legitimate reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal situation demands accurate data it is worth the money in the end. The fee is necessary because this variety of information is not easy or free to research, pull together, and save, so dispensing it immediately to others like you must also collect a fee to cover these working expenditures.

There likely will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely a lot of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many home phone numbers today. The best way to obtain access to these numbers is to put up a minor charge either to do a single number search or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.