Top 10 Tech Web Tips

Free Reverse Lookup for Phone Numbers from Google

Many people are not aware that Google provides a free reverse lookup tool for phone numbers.  Its relatively simple to use and is connected to Google maps.

All you have to do is go to a google search box and type (in lowercase) a combination of the trigger word ‘phonebook’ followed by a colon and a space and then the US phone number with no dashes, just spaces between the sets of numbers (xxx xxx xxxx).

phonebook: 555 555 5555

To my knowledge this free reverse lookup tool does not work with phone numbers outside of North America. 

Once you lookup a number the results will provide the listed name and address and a Map link in case you want to plot the location in Google maps.

Un-listing your Phone Number from Google’s Phonebook

If you want to have your phone number un-listed from Google’s free online phone book, you can utilize this form to get your phone number removed from Google.

Working Example

Let’s say that you wanted to look up a name and an address for a phone number.  Maybe you are an investigative reporter for Hustler Magazine and you have a copy of the DC Madam’s phone records from the last 12 years.

So you look up a phone number that called the madam’s business line at 1:23 PM on 12/23/2005.

You get the following result (fuzzed to protect the innocent or guilty depending on how you look at it)

Once you have that, you can then hit the Map button and plot your John on a map and play the ever lasting game of fun and chance, “Where’s Waldo?”

Its loads of fun to plot johns on a map (yeah right!)

Seriously, this does work, and it is free and you won’t get peppered with lots of pop up ads like you will see from other sites reporting to be ‘free’.  These sites might even be useful if you are a realtor looking to identify a house coming on the market soon (like after the divorce or something - a little morbid but our society is like this whether we like it or not.)

However, it does not show unlisted numbers and is not as complete as some sites that you can pay for the same information.  Its a nice cheap and easy place to start, but if you wanted to lookup lots of ‘johns’ then you’d probably want to invest in an optical character reader and download the linky firefox plugin.