Saturday, March 29, 2008

I Still See Yellow

Slate ran an article on phone books – asking “Why Won’t Phone Books Die?”

In the article, Bill Gates is quoted as predicing that “Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to zero—or near zero—over the next five years.”

I’m not so pessimistic on the future of printed phone books. Certainly usage is on the decline. And while it’s been a long time since I’ve actually used the white pages to look up someone’s phone number, I still use the yellow pages from time to time.

The key reason is that no organization has really delivered an effective way to find local businesses on the web. I’ve tried many sites and I’m just not confident in the results.

With the actual yellow pages, you have access to all the business listings, but you also get a sense for those companies that really invest in doing local business. Those ads can cost thousands of dollars per month. Of course some of the companies that run the largest ads could be fly-by-nights and companies with small ads could be a better choice.

But when I look through the ads, I can get a sense for which business would be a good choice. If my sink is clogged, I might look for a plumber that specializes in routine services. If I need a new hot water heater, I’d look for a plumber that specializes in that.

I don’t use the yellow pages for businesses I call all the time because I usually have a business card or web link. But for companies I might only call once or twice a year, such as a lanscaper or a carpenter, I use the yellow pages to remind me which resource I use.

According to Slate’s article…

Ask anyone under 30 about phone books, though, and you might as well inquire about Victrola needles. But printed phone books are a maturing industry, with only about six in 10 businesses and individuals still regularly relying on them. Yet even as directories hemorrhage content to the Web and to unlisted cell numbers, enough oldsters—those, say, who still recall physically dialing numbers in a rotary motion—continue using them enough to keep profits rolling in. In other words, you remaining four in 10 recipients can expect a lot more doorstops and spider-smashers in your future.

Yet the comments to that Slate article tell a different story. Some people actually like to use phone books and I understand why. Here are some examples…

I love my phone books and do not like using the web, especially for business listings. When I use the Yellow Pages, I get an overall picture of my local community, and can easily identify municipal resources … It is a beginning tool for checking out the quality of a business or tradesman, as often the ads give you additional information such as if they are family owned, how long they have been in business, and their specialty.

I found the Yellow Pages ONLINE to be less than accurate, and not up to date. When we receive our big book of the actual Yellow Pages, we know it was recently updated in the past year. I like to see the ads that businesses put out. It does give you alot of information you wouldn’t normally get. So I tend to grab my actual book of Yellow Pages when I need a business number. The internet Yellow Pages leave alot to be desired.

I use online directories for residential listings all the time, but all of the various online versions of the yellow pages are completely useless. Perfectly ordinary searches bring up completely unrelated results, no results at all, or results located 100 miles away from the requested location. I won’t be giving up my yellow directories any time soon.

As someone who has moved every few years for most of my adult life, I always look forward to getting a local phone book. The main reason is that despite all the information available on the internet, when I need to get my utilities connected, find a decent chinese takeout place in my neighborhood or a veternarian for my dogs the phone book has better, more complete information.

So I think phone books will be with us for many years. Besides, if phone books disappeared, what would people tear in half to prove how strong they are?

Posted by Richard Bloch

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