Typically, when you remember someone you haven't spoken to in awhile or need to contact an acquaintance who you don't have a phone number for, you simply go to the phone book and find their last name. Yet in current times most people do not even waste space in their homes with the wasteful paper phone books, but go to internet pages containing the same information and find what they need much quicker.

Yet things happen in most people's lives where they receive a phone number and need to identify who it belongs to. Old style phone books are designed only to look up the name of the person you need to connect with, so are useless. With cell phones being so popular these days it gets even more difficult because there isn't a phone number directory accessible to the community like with landlines. Apparently, developments in technology have made another variation of number listing essential.

Reverse phone lookup means just what its name states: it reverses the method in which you usually use a number directory. Instead of looking up a name to locate a phone number or address, you use a phone number to locate the name or even address of whoever the number is listed under.

Many people do not even know this is possible, but with the invention of reverse phone lookup websites it is now widely used in the business world. It is also on the rise with individuals who find themselves concerned with a phone number for one reason or another. It is a more modern form of the phone book that is likely to eliminate the need for paper phone books in the future.

If you are bothered by a high volume of disturbing calls, whether they be annoying hang ups, disturbing pranks, or even solicitations or bill collectors who don't clearly identify themselves but call nonstop, it is possible to identify just who is connected to the calls by utilizing one of these websites.

You can visit yellowpages.com and access a limited reverse phone lookup website for very basic information or for published landline numbers, but there are two varieties of information that cannot be found with any other means other than a more detailed service.

1. * If you have a number but no more information and want a name.
2. * When you have someone's cell phone or an unpublished residential number and need a name, address, or additional information. Yellowpages.com will not help with these sorts of information because it is not updated with the information you need.

Reverse phone lookup directories put out quite a bit of time collecting information, keeping it as accurate as possible, and maintaining it all in an organized directory so that it may be easily used by consumers as needed.

Much of this information retrieved is not that simple to locate and some of it they have to pay for as well. For instance, a trustworthy, up to date website will have to purchase numbers from cell phone companies for updated listings of phone numbers. In turn, it is to be expected that you will have to pay a nominal charge to have access to their information.

The deal about the charge is it should be low and affordable, typically around a buck or so for a single phone number lookup and under 15 bucks for more long term access to the |listings|directory|service}. Any site asking for a large charge for very little information retrieved should be avoided.

There are too many good websites out there to waste time and money on inaccurate services, so be certain they actually have the information you want before wasting your money.