Cell phone numbers are notoriously difficult to look up. Most telephone directories only list landline numbers, meaning that trying to find the number of somebody who only uses a cell phone can be exceedingly hard. Given that so many people today are doing away with their landline phones and relying exclusively on cell phones, the difficulty in actually conducting a cell phone lookup is becoming a major problem. However, there are still ways to find a person's cell phone number, but to do so you will have to get a little creative and clever. Here are four tips for looking up a cell phone number online.

Social Media

You can use social media in a number of ways in order to track down a cell phone number. For one, if you're simply looking for a person's cell phone number then see if that person has a social media profile. You may have to become "friends" with them online before you'll be able to see the number that they have listed. Alternatively, if you have the number but you don't know who it belongs to then you can use social media sites like Facebook to run a reverse cell phone number lookup. Just type in the number in the search box and see if you get any matches.

Google

Another good idea is to try Google itself. A Google search tends to work best for reverse cell phone searches since if the phone number has been posted almost anywhere on the web then chances are it will show up among your Google search results. However, just typing the name of the person whose cell phone number you're looking for may provide useful results as well. For example, that individual may have a profile page on the website of the company that he or she works for that lists his or her cell phone number.

Crowdsourced People Finder

Some sites have been trying to get around the problems posed by traditional telephone directories by getting their data from more non-traditional sources. TrueCaller, for example, is a site that uses crowdsourced information to keep its database up to date. Basically, TrueCaller works similarly to any other telephone directory, but because it relies on crowdsourced data it tends to be better at helping you find out a person's cell phone number.

Using a pay service

Finally, some people finder services offer premium content that requires you to pay for it beforehand. The quality of pay people finder services is very hit-and-miss, but there are cases where the money could be well spent. Before using a pay service be sure to do your homework, such as researching whether other customers of the pay site have had positive or negative experiences using it.

One of the ironies of living in a more connected world is that it has actually become harder than ever to find out many people's contact info, especially if they rely primarily on cell phones. As the above tips show, however, while looking up a cell phone isn't always easy, it can still be done with a bit of hard work and ingenuity.

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