How Telephone Directories Transformed America

reason.com

19 points·coderdude··4 comments

Ah telephone directories, the Google of the past era. They even evolved archaic forms of SEO based on the alphabetic ordering of entries: Here in Germany, we have several regional franchise chains in the emergency lock and key service "industry", with names like "A.A.A. SERVICE" and even "A.A.A.A.A.A GmbH". Register your entire company under a silly name and one of the top entries in the yellow pages is yours, no extra advertising cost.

I've got a friend who worked for a while, last year, selling yellow page ads to businesses.

I was baffled.

Does anyone still use the yellow pages?

Well, I do.

SmartFlix.com has the ground floor of a two story building, and every year, the yellow pages folks leave four or five shrink-wrapped bundles of directories in our lobby.

NONE of these get opened up.

NOONE in the building wants even a single copy.

I usually take an entire shrink-wrapped bundle home, and use it to start fires with all winter long.

I'm writing this comment on a laptop elevated to a better eye level by four Yellow Pages.

The yellow pages can still be useful in some situations, although like you I mostly use them to start the BBQ. I'm playing devil's advocate here...

- You're in a metro area with lower-than-average internet uptake. There will still be a lot of businesses you can't find (easily) without the yellow pages.

- If you're searching for a business where net presence is not a big differentiator, their yellow page ad may well give you more information than google would. My favorite guitar store barely exists, as far as google is concerned.

- You're stranded in the middle of nowhere and you don't have a smartphone. If there's gas station nearby the yellow pages are the best way to find a mechanic/locksmith/etc. This has happened to me.

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