There are many free phone number search services available online. Some of these services are free while there are those that provide the service for a certain fee. Those who charge fees often provide more information than just addresses. These services also do more than just trace phone numbers, they can match zip codes with areas, provide international calling codes. Some services are geared towards providing background information and historical data from public records such as birth and death records.
Usually, these services are used to locate family members or friends but they can also be useful for businesses. Once can do a background check using the service, to check if someone has criminal records from his past. This can be used by employers to check on potential employees or even by individuals who want to do background investigations on potential business partners.
Many of the services use multiple databases and records and can give you search results in under a minute. You can combine the use of this service and search engines to get more information about people. It can be pretty easy to dig up information about anyone because of the various databases, articles and other materials available online. Unlike before when you had to sift through public documents to get information about anyone, these days, it just takes a few clicks of the mouse.
Many free systems will let you make limited searches per month. Free services generally provide more information and allow multiple, even unlimited number of searches. Whether you should use a free service or a paid service depends on the purpose of your search.