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Comment by chrisco255 | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it kinda crazy how we take for granted how easily it is to find people nowadays via social media or your stored phone book entry on your cell phone? I guess they didn't think to exchange phone numbers or addresses before the scheme was hatched? And then, how would you lookup a phone number in Australia from LA or London in 1963? You'd have to really work at it to find it.

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Back in the deep mists of time you used to be able to call a special operator who would look up the number in a phone book for you. They called it "information".

Yeah? Did they have the names of parents and their kids in those directories? Did you have access to the number for anyone in the world or just your local area?

Could you find the number for an Irish guy doing an internship in Australia from Los Angeles or London?

I can't tell if you're asking seriously or not, but anyway:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-1-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory_assistance

Buddy they didn't have a social graph on 411. They didn't have names of kids on 411. They didnt have global phone books on 411. The didn't have an Irish man's hotel room number in Melbourne for his summer internship in London's 411.

iirc (only did this a couple of times and that was some time ago), at least by the 80s-90s, you'd call information in the target location long distance. But yes, that wouldn't go deeper than name->number kinds of lookups.

Buddy they didn't have a social graph on 411. They didn't have names of kids on 411. They didnt have global phone books on 411. They didn't have an Irish college kids dorm room number in Melbourne for his summer internship in London's 411.

"Buddy" "But yes, that wouldn't go deeper than name->number kinds of lookups."

Thanks for the 411 on how the phone system worked back in the day!

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