Finding Phone Numbers

I was shocked when I typed my name into Google, what I thought was private, was public, very much so; there was my full name, along with my street and even a map.  Geez, if someone was up to no good, I'd be pretty easy to find; and of course that is both good and bad.  Bad if you're trying to hide, good if you're trying to find someone.  It is possible (to a degree) to have this information removed, but once it's online, that's a difficult journey.

That said, what can YOU do if you want to find a phone number.  Well of course you could open the white pages (telephone directory) but I'm sure you thought of that.  And of course what if the number is unlisted or your party lives somewhere else; then you're out of luck, or are you?

Have you heard of a reverse telephone directory?  Maybe so, but have you used one?  If not you've got to give it a try, they're great.  First of course, try the easy way, do a Google (mentioned above) or Yahoo, search, it's amazing what you can find online these days, some of it is scary.

We'll assume, for the sake of this article that you didn't have any luck doing an online search, so are you out of luck?  Do you need to throw up your hands and say... "Guess, I'll never find my friend".  No you don't since there are websites that are designed for one thing and one thing only, (yes you guess it) to find phone number, even unlisted phone number.  You'll certainly want to visit the free reverse phone lookup sites, although the ones that charge a fee are generally better and offer more information.

Usually when you're interested (or desperate) to find someone's phone number, you'll have a good reason; usually this isn't done for fun.  Based on that, you will need a certain amount of information such as: their name (obviously), email address, and best (but usually something you don't have) is their actual street address.

If this doesn't do the trick, and you're are still determined, there are people who specialize in this (for a fee) and they have access to databases and online search tools, that us mere mortals are not privy to.  Decide how much finding this person is worth to you, if you truly need to find them, it can be done.