Typically, when you remember someone you haven't have lost touch with or need to contact an acquaintance who you don't have a phone number for, you simply go to the phone book and search for their last name. Nowadays, most people do not even waste space in their office or homes with the oversized paper phone books, but would rather use internet pages containing the same information and look it up much quicker.

Yet problems arise in most people's lives where they receive a phone number and want to determine who it belongs to. Old style phone books are designed on the knowledge of the name of the person you want to connect with, and therefore offer little help. With cell phones being so popular these days it gets even more difficult since there isn't a cell phone phone book free to the community as we have with standard home phones. Clearly, developments in technology have made another type of phone number compilation essential.

Reverse phone lookup means just what the name states: it reverses the way you typically use a phone number listing. Rather than looking up a name to get to a number or address, you use a phone number to find the name or address of whoever the number may be registered to.

Many people do not even realize this can be done, but with the invention of reverse phone lookup services it is now widely used in the business world. It is also growing with individuals who find themselves interested in a phone number for for various reasons. It is a new sort of phone book that is likely to erase the need for paper phone books in the future.

If you get a high volume of disturbing calls, whether they be childish hang ups, rude pranks, or even telemarketers or collection services who don't leave a message but call nonstop, you can identify just who is making the calls by utilizing one of these directories.

You can check out whitepages.com and access a free reverse phone lookup service for very basic information or for listed landline numbers, but there are two varieties of information that cannot be found by any other means other than a more detailed service.

1. * When you have a phone number but no additional information and must find a matching name.
2. * When you have a cell phone or an unlisted residential number and need a name, address, or additional information. Yellowpages.com is not likely to help with these sorts of information because it is not updated with the information you want.

Reverse phone lookup directories spend quite a bit of time collecting information, double checking that it is as accurate as possible, and maintaining it all in an organized directory so that it may be quickly used by people whenever needed.

Much of this information retrieved is not that simple to find and some of it must be paid for as well. For instance, a reputable, well maintained directory will have to purchase numbers from cell phone networks for accurate listings of numbers. In turn, it is to be expected that you will be required to pay a nominal charge to have access to their information.

The deal about the fee is it should be low and reasonable, for the most part about a dollar or so for a one-time phone number search and under fifteen dollars for more long term subscription to the |listings|directory|service}. Any site asking for a substantial fee for very little information retrieved should be avoided.

There are too many good websites available to throw away time and money on inaccurate services, so make sure they actually have the information you desire before giving them hard earned money.