Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and searching for a number or address simply required opening the white pages and searching for their name. Things have grown more complicated now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unlisted.

Even with the development of caller ID on most home phones, some numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing demands to provide a very useful service to modern phone users.

There are two common functions for these directories.

Finding Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you need to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name registered to the phone number of concern. Just by typing in the number you will be able to identify the person who is initiating those calls of concern.

People in search of such services include those wanting to check up on a number often calling their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they want to know a name listed to a home phone that is unpublished. Anytime you have a phone number but are uncertain who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup website can deliver the information.

Finding Addresses

The other typical purpose is to identify an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you gain access to the contact information associated with a certain number most directories will deliver other sorts of information as well, such as the address of an home phone or the address connected to a cell phone number.

This may not be a common need for most people, but it does have its uses in some situations. Such as a parent desperate to find a teenager who has run off or is still out long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of places the teenager may be at that time.

Other situations may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have a phone number you can access their address and mail out the invitation without calling and tracking down other busy family.

These services can also deliver a connection to other various types of information, like income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There will be a nominal price for any up to date reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal situation demands accurate information it is more than worth the payoff in the long run. The charge is necessary because this kind of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and store, so dispensing it immediately to people like you must also collect a charge to account for such operational expenditures.

There more than likely will never be a public directory for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely many of the numbers would be unpublished just like many home phone numbers today. The only way to get access to such phone numbers is to give a small fee either to do a single phone number search or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the service long term.