Web technology has evolved so fast that a lot of things that we used to do by using off-line instruments are now done faster and more easily on the Internet. One such an example is phone book lookups. Old fashioned Yellow Pages are now seldom used to look up a number for a person or business. Most people do it online or directly from their iPhones and Droids.

New York Times has recently posted an article saying that the phone books are “going the way of rotary dial phones”. Indeed, major providers, including the Yellow Pages, have invested more time in building their online directories than in updating the look and feel of their paperback products.

There is one more feature that only the electronic verison of the phone book can do – reverse lookups. There are surely many real life scenarios when one may need to do such a search. While mobile phones have caller and city ID (via the EasyEdge add-on) functionalities that will provide the number and geographic origins of the phone call, they come short of providing the name of the caller.

A reverse phone number lookup will supply you with this info whenever available. Simply perform a reverse lookup on the Yellow Pages official site or by using one of those reverse cell phone lookup web apps that allow anyone to check the phone number’s service provider, registered location and more.

And while most cell phone numbers are still unpublished in the US due to privacy concerns, you may stand a good chance of finding the caller’s name through the premium records offered by specialized directories.