….the Yellow Pages Are an Anachronism
1. As the Internet increasingly becomes the information, entertainment and communications tool, it’s so much quicker and easier to look up something online as opposed to pulling out the Yellow Pages and then sifting through hundreds of pages of teeny, tiny print to find the service you want.
2. Getting a five-pound paper tomb dropped on your doorstep every year just seems strange at a time when being “green” and being good to Mother Earth are all the rage. How many trees do you think they chop down, for example, to deliver the Yellow Pages to a million households in a city such as Toronto? If there’s a silver lining, it’s that many Yellow Pages are hopefully thrown into blue boxes so they can be recycled.
3. Since it’s published once a year, the Yellow Pages can become dated fairly quickly. And there’s no way to use the Yellow Pages to determine if the companies listed in it are legitimate or come highly recommended. With the Internet, however, you can do a few quick searches to get more information. There’s also personal recommendation services such as GigPark that connect you online people who can give you the “dirt” about who and what to use.
4. There’s got to be better and more fashionable things than the Yellow Pages to use as a door stop or a way to proper up your computer monitor or a booster seat for children.
For more thoughts on the Yellow Pages, check out Michael Garrity’s post on the One Degree blog.
Technorati Tags: environment, yellow pages
June 20th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Mark and Sean,
I agree with your sentiments wholeheartedly. The Yellow Pages does indeed become outdated quickly, and is a very cumbersome publication to use in my opinion.
It’s the likes of wiki directories (they integrate so well with search engines) that people should be using if they want an up-to-date version of a business directory.
Wiki directories like Brownbook are really user-friendly and they grow and grow as more businesses add their details. That’s the beauty of them - anyone can add an entry, and anyone can edit their entries. And of course there’s the added bonus of feedback, which you don’t get by advertising in the big yellow book.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
The thing that bugs me about the Yellow Pages is that they presume that you want it. They throw it onto your sidewalk - now it’s your problem to dispose of. I have not used mine in years.
YouGottaCall.com is a much better way to find my friends trusted service providers - and to benefit the community.
Disclaimer - yes - I did create http://www.yougottacall.com
It is only in beta now, but keep your eyes out.
- - Tim
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Claire,
Wouldn’t wikis be a nightmare to keep spam/vandal-free? Are North American YPs/WPs not printed on recycled paper?
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 am
Thanks for the shout-out to GigPark … and we couldn’t agree more! The yellow pages served a great purpose when it was too much work to find out who the trusted plumber or accountant your friends use. The rise of the web and social media has changed all of that.
Noah Godfrey
Founder, GigPark (www.gigpark.com)