01.12
It is easy to take for granted new technology after it has been incorporated into our daily lives. You look at your cell phone and notice a missed call. “Hmm. I wonder who that could be,” you might wonder. If you are somewhat technically savvy then you know you can go on the Internet and use a reverse directory service to get a pretty good idea of who called you and why. It is a simple act, one that usually does not get much thought, but it is impressive how far technology has come in regards to getting information quickly and efficiently.
Before the Internet, if some one called and hung up before you answered, then you would never know who called. Up until very recently, most people did not even have Caller ID, which used to be a premium telephone service. If the caller did not leave a message or call back then there was no more information about who called and when. It was not until cell phones, which automatically record telephone numbers of missed calls, became ubiquitous that most people obtained the telephone number of their missed calls. A telephone number in and of itself is mostly useless for determining who it might belong to if the number is not familiar.
The only way to get more information about who the caller previously was to use a reverse phone book, or the grey pages, which is like a regular phone book, but instead of listing the numbers by name of owner alphabetically, it lists the numbers numerically and then lists the associated name of the owner. Reverse phone books were generally available to the public, and were instead mostly used for commercial and government services. If the number was from a different location than the area incorporated in the reverse phone book, then the reverse phone book that you were using was essentially useless for your purposes. Short of doing something extreme like hiring a private investigator, there was now no easy way to determine who called you and why.
Compare that same scenario to its present day incarnation using modern technology. Someone calls your cell phone which registers their phone number, when they called, and how many times they called. If this person has called before their name and information may already be in your address book. Otherwise it might show up in your address book if you use a service such as Facebook that links accounts with your friends, if the caller had their information in one of their address books. If the caller is truly unknown. Any Internet device, such as a smart phone, can use a reverse directory service to look up the numbers location, what type of line it is, and possibly a name of the person or business. Literally, within seconds of noticing a missed call you can obtain more information about the caller than you probably could get at all when it was 10 to 15 years ago. Who knows where we will be in 10 to 15 more years?
