It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a phone number or address was a matter of opening the phone book and locating the name. It is often 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 widespread use of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from appearing. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very timely service to modern phone users.
There are two typical uses for these services.
Searching for Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name listed to the number in question. Just by typing in the number you will have access to the person who is behind those bothersome phone calls.
People needing this service include those wanting to identify a number frequently texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they need to find a name connected to a landline that is unlisted. If you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can deliver the information.
Finding Addresses
The other typical use is to locate an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the contact information linked with a specific phone number most directories will deliver other sorts of data as well, which includes the address of an home phone or an address connected to a cell phone number.
This may not be a typical need for some people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. For instance, consider a parent in a rush to find a teenager who has run off or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of locations the child may be at that time.
More common situations may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have their phone number you can access their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy family.
These services can also deliver a connection to other various types of information, such as income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of where the home or business is located. There is a small charge for any relevant reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal situation requires accurate data it is money well spent in the end. The fee is necessary because this kind of information is not easy or free to research, collect, and store, so issuing it on demand to others like you must also collect a charge to make up for such serviceable expenditures.
There probably will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable many of the numbers would be unlisted just like many home phone numbers today. The best way to obtain access to these numbers is to put up a nominal fee either to do a one time phone number search or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.