Ask TRYNT: How do you perform the reverse phone number search?

Q: If you don't mind me asking, how do you perform the reverse phone number
search? This is very neat, I am experimenting with technology that uses
phone numbers for retrieving additional data.

A: Essentially we simulate the function of a reverse phone number search using "web search indexes" as our "telephone number database. To do this we came up with a method of identifying a website from a user supplied telephone number. We subsequently attempt to identify the physical address of the website from the website itself. Finally the resulting physical address is then geo-coded.

In the mash-up, PhoneBackr, the results of your telephone number based query are mapped using Yahoo! Flash Maps. Since we cannot guarantee success 100% of the time using our simulated reverse phone number if a failure does occur we identify the "general" location of your telephone number based query using a database of telephone area codes and prefixes.