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Comment by dv_dt | Hacker News Reader

I wish there were a commerce directory that would enable search and discovery for local businesses like this.

Something printed on yellow paper, maybe!

You jest, the yellow pages online are a travesty of interface woes, but I guess I was able to enter flour and a number of companies did come up.

But I think they are missing out on listings for products, resource, or manufacturing inputs & waste connecting angle that would be really interesting. The best thing they have is maybe industry category keywords.

The entire business model of the Yellow Pages is to sell entries to businesses, and any value you get out of that is (at least) secondary. It's basically a gym subscription model, except its hosting costs and transit that eat into their profits. Just like the most profitable way to run a gym is to sell subscriptions to people who never visit.

Not sure that's quite the right model. Everyone can pile into looking up entries in the yellow pages online, and the more people find businesses, the more value the yp has in it's base product vs the costs of buying an entry.

The more people pile into a gym there becomes a point of declining value because you can't get on a machine and the room gets stuffier, conditions worsen.

I think not finding other value enhancing propositions for the yellow pages is mostly about brand stagnation.

>the more people find businesses, the more value the yp has in it's base product vs the costs of buying an entry.

I'm not sure this is true. Zero marginal cost for usage does not create an opportunity for profit. How could it? Selling ads for your pages filled with ads?

Not long after I started consulting, I had to get a D&B account. I don't remember why. But not long after, I was spammed by Yellow Pages. And it went on for many years. Maybe I was short sighted, but I couldn't imagine it being useful for a litigation consultant.

Thomas Register perhaps? https://www.thomasnet.com/

Instagram unlocked a lot of stuff here, though tbh it was mostly chatting with people on insta messaging rather than any kind of open discovery.

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