Is there anything like a Telephone Directory nowadays?
Asked by
Yellowdog (
12216
)
September 23rd, 2019
Remember when all you had to do was look someone up, or call long distance information? You could get a name, phone numbers, an address?
When so much went online, there were still many free services which applied this. You could get a name, address, and phone number online and send cards or letters or even call someone.
For twenty years now, you try to look up the address of someone you know, or used to know. You get about five or six exclamations claiming they found the person you are seeking. You click on any of them and OOOH GIDDY! Tantalizing details about this person are promised!
I stand there giddy as a teenager at a slumber party wetting myself as each exciting stage promises me SHOCKING DETAILS about so-and-so- criminal records and promises of DUIs and sex offender reports and things that will shock me out of my gourd so bad that I have to sign a disclaimer that I won’t FREAK OUT—and that they are not responsible for what I will do with all this tantalizing information.
BUT BEFORE I GET this information, I have to agree to one month free service for $4.99 and then maybe X-amount per month after.
I can even look MYSELF up to see if I am a registered sex offender, have outstanding warrants, arrest records, or whatever, just in case I do not know.
Is there any old fashioned way of just looking someone up? Besides an address, the only thing I might want is a birthday, if only to identify if this is indeed the right person.
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18 Answers
I still receive a telephone directory.
I still receive, and advertise in, the phone book (and Yellow Pages.)
They don’t give them out where I live because nobody uses them. We all google.
I have some sites I use if I want to find out names and addresses. I use zabasearch and Spokeo.
In addition, if you stay away from the sites that promise court information and crap like that, so much can be found from just googling with certain terms. If you google someone’s name with the term “arrest” or “obituary,” all kinds of stuff comes up, then you can click on each thing and decide what’s relevant. I use the term “obituary” even if the person is not dead, because a relative’s obituary will reveal all kinds of stuff.
I amaze myself with my googling skills LOL.
Library and Archives still hold old phone books and old newspaper archives (newspapers.com just key in a name..free trial)
Yeah, I get phone books too.
We got phone books for nine years and then they stopped.
There is still the information number, 411. Long distance can be done by dialing the area code plus 411. There might be an extra digit or something for long distance, or maybe just 411, and then tell the operator the city and state. I have used it but it has been a while, so I am rusty.
As already mentioned, how you word your online search makes a big difference in what you find.
There is also a cell phone information operator. I have never used that, so I don’t remember the details.
I still get telephone directories, and I put them instantly into the recycling.
I get them but they only list businesses, not individuals.
With the phone book you get to what you want instantly, as opposed to with searching on Google or whatever else.
…What are the chances of the phone book is upto no good (tries to trick you into giving your x y z?) Zero.
@flo: I feel just the opposite. I feel like storing a phone book, retrieving a phone book, flipping through the pages of a phone book, so much effort and at least five minutes between retrieving it and flipping through. With googling, ten seconds and you have what you need.
@jca2 I guess you don’t have a dial-up modum…
If I tried to use my computer to look up a phone number, I’d be here all day.
@flo I do not have a “White Pages” for Tempe AZ—Do You? ? ?
@jca2 I guess if it’s stored (again and again?) far enough away, it might take too much trouble I don’t know. You have to know which pick site is the most reliable, but next time it may not be around anymore, which can’t happen with a phone book. Flipping to the page you need takes no time if one is good at it.
…How about something or other is is fine if using with a smartphone but not on a desktop, or vise versa. and so on.
….-You have to be where there’s coverage.
-You don’t need to finding somewhere to plug it, to charge it.
The phone book doesn’t try to track. That’s a biggie. I use search engines that do not track.
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