I tried your Google search engine to check names and phone numbers in
the "phonebook" and reverse directory.  Most of the time I came up
with no record.  However, when I entered my neighbors phone number I
received his name and correct address.  However, when I entered the
exact same name as directed in the recent Post article (i.e
"phonebook: name VA") it came up with nothing.  Most of the numbers I
checked in MD came up empty.  What am I missing?  Could some numbers
be unlisted?

---

Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 10 Apr 2003 15:43 PDT

How exactly did you enter your neighbor's phone number to receive his
name and correct address?  (You can just describe the method you used;
don't actually tell us your neighbor's name, phone number, or
address.)  Did you get the name and address in the search results, or
at the top of the page before the search results?

Greetings, libra44!

I found the article to which you are referring:
"Yahoo Plays With Search And Syntax" by Leslie Walker, (April 10,
2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1192-2003Apr9.html

I use the Google PhoneBook search all the time, but I have never seen
the phonebook: prefix used on a telephone number or name search.
Google has actually made it even easier than that.

From Google Help Central's section on Web Search Features:
://www.google.com/help/features.html#wp

"PhoneBook

Google has added the convenience of US street address and phone number
lookup to the information we provide through our search box. You'll
see publicly listed phone numbers and addresses at the top of results
pages for searches that contain specific kinds of keywords.

To find listings for a US business, type the business name into the
Google search box, along with the city and state. Or type the business
name and zip code. Entering the phone number with area code will also
return a complete business listing.

To find listings for a US residence, type any of the following
combinations into the Google search box:

first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional) 
first name (or first initial), last name, state 
first name (or first initial), last name, area code 
first name (or first initial), last name, zip code 
phone number, including area code 
last name, city, state 
last name, zip code 
If your query results in business and residential listings, both
categories will be listed for your convenience.

To have your residential or business phone and address information
removed from the Google PhoneBook, click here
( ://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html ).


One really nice thing about entering a phone number in the Google
Search box in the format "999-999-9999" is that any PhoneBook results
will be returned, in addition to any webpages indexed by Google that
contain that phone number (be sure to use the quotes to restrict your
search to webpages with that exact phone number; otherwise, you will
get web pages with any one of the three chunks of numbers on them).

Try entering this search phrase, including the quotes, into Google's
Search box and click "Google Search":
"650-930-3500"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=650-930-3500&btnG=Google+Search

Then try entering this search phrase (no quotes necessary) into
Google's Search box and click "Google Search":
Google, Mountain View, CA
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Google%2C+Mountain+View%2C+CA&btnG=Google+Search

Pretty nifty, huh?

Certainly some of your neighbors' numbers may be unlisted, and if so,
those names, addresses, and phone numbers will not be returned by
these types of searches (nor will they show up in the Search Results
if someone has requested that their listing and number be removed from
Google's phone directory by using the Removal URL I listed above).

My other favorite phone directories are:

AT&T's Anywho:
http://www.anywho.com

Switchboard.com
http://www.switchboard.com

and
ReversePhoneDirectory.com, which allows you to do reverse lookups by
phone numbers on several different directories from a single webpage:
http://www.reversephonedirectory.com


Search Strategy

Google phonebook  site:Google.com
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Google+phonebook+site%3AGoogle.com&btnG=Google+Search


Before Rating my Answer, if you have any questions about this
information, please post a Request for Clarification.
      
I hope that this Answer provides exactly the information that you
needed!
     
Regards,     
       
aceresearcher

To partially answer your question, Google doesn't have unlisted
numbers in its database. Any information that does not appear in the
printed White Pages, will not appear in Google's results.