Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a number or address was a matter of opening the yellow pages and finding the name. This has become more difficult now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.
Even with the invention of caller ID on most landlines, some numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing times to provide a very timely service to resourceful phone users.
There are two common uses for these services.
Finding Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your caller ID, or you need to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name registered to the phone number in question. Just by entering the number you will have access to the person who is behind those calls of concern.
People looking for lookup directories include those who need to identify a number constantly texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to identify a name connected to a home phone that may be unlisted. If you have a number but aren't sure who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can deliver the information.
Finding Addresses
The other typical purpose is to locate an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you plug into the contact information connected with a certain number most services will deliver other sorts of information as well, such as the address of the home phone or an address associated with a cell phone number.
This may not be an everyday need for most people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. For example, take a parent in a rush to find a teenager who has run off or is still out well past curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly tell them addresses and names of places the child may be located.
More common circumstances may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have a phone number you can find their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy parents.
Lookup websites can also give you a connection to other various types of information, like income brackets and address histories, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of where the home or business is located. There will be a minor fee for any relevant reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life demands certain information it is money well spent in the end. The charge is required because this variety of information is not simple or free to research, collect, and save, so dispensing it immediately to people like you must also include a fee to make up for these operational costs.
There likely will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if there were most likely a lot of the numbers would be unpublished just like many landline numbers right now. The only way to get access to these phone numbers is to put up a nominal charge either to do a one time number search or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the directory long term.