One of the most well known services provided by Google was reverse phone lookup. If one used the ‘phonebook:’ or ‘rphonebook:’ operators along with a USA phone number, Google showed the owner of the phone number for sure, unless it was unlisted on their servers.
On a related note read about free cell phone number lookup – a business angle of the story.
As we all know, since November 2010, Google shut down its Phonebook service. And that too, without any press release. The reason was stated as “causing an endless source of hassles for people”. One question we must ask is why? Well, the obvious reason being that some googlers were shocked to see their very own personal numbers and addresses listed on the most well known search engine on this planet. So, Google had to handle endless numbers of “takedown requests and outraged letters” from these very users.
Google, in the end, came up with a solution to drop the “phonebook:” and “rphonebook:” operators. If you want your information removed from Google, visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/pbremoval.html.
But, as we say, the end is not near. You can still search for phone numbers using Google. Now, don’t get too ahead of yourself.
Some Googlers are annoyed by this. One Google’s support forum poter, billdickason comments
“I have tried about six other phone search engines. None of them have the search capability of Google Phonebook. I just finished finding classmates for a 50-yr high school reunion. I couldn’t have done it with the other phonebooks. Most of them are not as searchable and are terribly out of date with their listings. I haven’t found any way to send something to Google. At some point in the not too distant future it will probably not matter. My kids don’t have land lines only cell phones. Good luck in finding them.”
Now, to the meat and potatoes of this article. Doing a reverse phone lookup using Google is still hard. But we make it easy as 5 simple tips:
1. Type the number in Google with the dashes in between. e.g. 666-666-6666
2.If their number is listed in phone lookup services, try to find out the sites. If it is a business, it will most likely be paid. If you got the money, pay for it and you’ll have gotten access to the address.
3.It might be listed on a social network. If so, you’ll have got the username or even the real name of the person.
4.Their number might still be on google. If you know the name, find the zip code by checking the social website or any other source.
5.Type their name and zip code on google for their complete information – name,phone number,address and a Google map with directions to the residence.
Note you might never find the number on Google. This method is not error-proof and you might not find the number. But who knows, you might get lucky. Sites asking for payment may not have all the information about the number so beware of such shady sites. Before payment, you might want to enter the site’s name followed by ‘scam’ in Google, just to check.
Member Since:
2012-01-10