It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a number or address was a matter of opening the phone book and searching for the name. This has become 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now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.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 development of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their name from appearing. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing times to offer a very useful service to resourceful phone users.

There are two typical uses 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 figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can assist in finding the name listed to the number in question. Just by typing in the number you will be able to identify whoever is behind the phone calls in question.

People looking for such services include those who need to check up on a number often texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no accessible directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to identify a name connected to a landline that may be unlisted. Anytime you have a phone number but aren't sure who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup directory can help.

Locating Addresses

another typical use is to locate an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the information connected with a particular number most services will deliver other sorts of data as well, which includes the address of the landline or an address connected to a cell phone number.

This may not be an everyday need for some people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. Such as a parent desperate to track down a teenager who has run away or has not returned home long after 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 places the child may be at that time.

More common situations may be searching for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have the phone number you can access their address and easily deliver the invite without calling or tracking down other busy family.

Lookup directories can also deliver access to other sorts of data, including income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint of the most current location.

There is a small charge for any up to date reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal situation requires certain information it is worth the money in the long run. The charge is unavoidable because this variety of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and store, so issuing it as needed to others like you must also collect a fee to account for such serviceable expenditures.

There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable many of the numbers would be unlisted just like many home phone numbers right now. The best way to obtain access to such numbers is to pay a nominal fee either to do a one time phone number search or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the service on a regular basis.