 Being a guy who values his personal privacy, I don't like to answer phone calls from numbers I don't recognise (thank the Lord for caller-ID!). I normally let the caller talk on the answering machine and if I decide to talk to them, I will pick up. But often, I get calls from people who don't leave messages (mostly sales people) and in these cases, I double-check who the caller was by entering the phone number into Google which will then tell you who it was.
This only works though if the phone number is listed on a website somewhere. For example, I entered a Frankfurt phone number this morning and discovered it was my insurance company because the number was listed on their website. If the person that is calling you has made sure their number doesn't appear on any websites, then Google probably won't find any trace of it (unless the caller is in the phone book, in which case you may strike lucky as Google also indexes all the phone book listings).
Just enter the phone number with a "-" after the dialling code so 123-456-7890. If your caller's number appears anywhere on the web, Google will find it and you can see who is calling. With a bit of luck, you may get the person's address and other phone numbers, but at the very least you should get their name and the name of their company (if any).
Labels: google, phone, search |
