It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a number or address simply required opening the yellow pages and finding their name. It is often more complicated now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.
Even with the invention of caller ID on most home phones, some numbers may come up 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 times to provide a very useful service to resourceful phone users.
There are two typical functions for lookup services.
Finding Names
If you are getting calls from someone and only a number comes up on your caller ID, or you need to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the phone number in question. Just by typing in the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is behind the phone calls in question.
People needing lookup directories include those who need to check up on a number often texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no accessible directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they want to find a name listed to a home phone that is unpublished. If you have a number but are uncertain who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can deliver the information.
Searching for Addresses
The other typical use is to locate an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you gain access to the contact information linked with a certain phone number most services will give other sorts of information as well, which includes the address of the home phone or the address associated with 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 example, take a parent needing to find a teenager who has run off or is still out well past curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of places the child may be at that time.
More common situations may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have their phone number you can find their address and get the invite in the mail without calling or tracking down other busy family.
Lookup directories can also give you a connection to other sorts of data, like income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of the most current location. There will be a nominal price for any up to date reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life demands particular data it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is required because this sort of information is not easy or free to research, collect, and store, so distributing it immediately to others like you must also collect a charge to cover such operational costs.
There likely will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if there were most likely the majority of the numbers would be unpublished just like many home phone numbers right now. The best way to gain access to these numbers is to pay a nominal charge either to complete a one time number search or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory long term.