Phone Numbers Search Engines
Most online phone directories are primarily derived from infoUSA (formerly known as American Business Information Inc.) databases. More recently, some are use data from Acxiom. A few have data from the phone companies. Search features vary greatly even when source databases are the same. Underlying data sources can change, so look closely at the fine print at the bottom of the search results.
| Search Engine | Search Options | Data Source |
| Yahoo! Yellow Pages and White pages |
must choose a location first | Yellow: infoUSA (as of 4/06) White: Acxiom (as of 12/05) |
| Directory Assistance Plus | reverse lookup; name or category, one state at a time | infoUSA (as of 12/05) |
| Switchboard | reverse lookup; multiple state searching in name search | Acxiom (as of 12/05) |
| Superpages | reverse lookup; nationwide search | Acxiom |
| WorldPages.com | U.S. & Canada, state needed for businesses but not people | Acxiom |
| InfoSpace | reverse lookup; area code needed | infoUSA for yellow Acxiom for white pages (as of 12/05) |
| DexOnline | regional but covers whole country | Phone company records, some yellow pages from infoUSA |
For non-United States phone number search engines, see the listings at Teldir.
See also my article "Duplicative Databases: Yellow Pages from infoUSA." Database. 22(1): 73-76, Feb.-Mar. 1999, for a more detailed discussion of the underlying databases.