Online phone number lookups have changed [telecom]

I just looked up my telephone number at 411.com. It gave me the correct number, and no charge.

The local phoney company here also has available on line their directory (as last published). Unfortunately, they have dropped out the names of those who are using some other phone service provider.

Bob K

When anywho and other directories can't find a match, they serve up adds for the paid services.

I just looked myself up on anywho.com. Using name and zip code did not find me. Using name, zip and state did find me. I did a few more searches for friends, and got the same results. Name and state got results as well.

Did you include a state when searching?

seems to still give numbers for free. Tried several out of state relatives, got numbers OK. Do have to click a 2nd link.

On Friday, April 3, 2015 at 10:44:05 AM UTC-4, Bill Horne wrote: [snip]

I think whitepages.com may still provide a free number. But you are right, most of them do not anymore.

mm

I tried anywho and it went to yellowpages.com and gave me the number of the person I entered. yp.com is also yellowpages.com.

411.com also worked.

Whitepages.com worked as well, with an output almost the same as what

411.com gave me, so 411.com and whitepages.com must be the same under the hood.

Not sure why they all conspired against you...

--snip--

Yes, Verizon still "publishes" the white pages. You can access them online at

(assuming your browser has low enough security settings). You can also ask for CDROM or dead tree local phone books.

can you really fault them for that?

jt - snipped-for-privacy@jt-mj.net

"God made the integers, the rest is the work of man" - Leopold Kronecker

That's fine for VZ numbers. What about the other outfits like Frontier, etc. Is there one place to look up a landline given name and location [regardless of the carrier]?

jt - snipped-for-privacy@jt-mj.net

PUBLIC NOTICE: Any use of this message, in any manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is warned that this process will ultimately lead to the heat death of the universe.

I don't think so, unless the landline owner has requested that his number be listed. This can be done via

For example, I have listed my Google Voice number this way, and I can be found on 411.com, whitepages.com, or yellowpages.com. For some strange reason, when I try anywho.com, I end up on a yellowpages.com page that says I can't be found, but if I re-enter the request on that page, it finds me. I'm not sure whether it's available to people who dial 411. I think this could also be used to list cell phones, but I'm not going to try listing mine.

The disadvantage to this service is that people don't know about it. It would be nice if the carriers would make their customers aware of it by asking them if they want to be listed in directories.

Where I live there are a couple of third-party phone book publishers who list all the names and numbers for all the towns around here, whether they are Bell or independents. The Bell phone book contains only the subscribers served by Bell exchanges.