Chapter 17: Telephone Directories

Online telephone directories are far more useful for locating people than print directories for several reasons:

• They are normally less limited by geography, sometimes even extending to multiple countries
• They can be updated more frequently
• In addition to being searchable by name, some are searchable by address and/or telephone number; this means you can find out who and who else lives at an address or uses a phone number
• Some are searchable by an address range, so you can obtain contact information for a whole neighborhood in order to find others who may have information about a person
• They can be merged with other databases to include unlisted numbers, email addresses, and so on
• Some are linked to mapping databases, allowing you to see a virtual map of exactly where a person lives (or even an actual aerial map of their home)

There are dozens of telephone directories available on the Internet. If you don't know where to start, there are even directories of telephone directories. These include:

• Infobel
• Numberway
• The Virtual Chase - White Page and Telephone Directories
• Yahoo! Phone Numbers and Addresses

Using these sites, you can locate telephone directories for countries around the world, as well as reverse directories, area code directories, and other specialty directories. These directories are extremely useful for locating individuals, especially those with less common names.

For information on reverse telephone directories, see:

Reverse Directories: Searches by Telephone Number

Reverse Directories: Searches by Address