Electronic Yellow Pages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electronic Yellow Pages are online versions of traditional printed business directories produced by telephone companies around the world. Typical functionalities of online yellow pages include the alphabetical listings of businesses and search functionality of the business database by name, business or location. Since Electronic Yellow Pages are not limited by space considerations, they often contain far more comprehensive business information such as vicinity maps, company profiles, product information, and more.

An advantage of Electronic Yellow Pages is that they can be updated in real time; therefore, listed businesses are not constrained by once-a-year publishing of the printed version which leads to greater accuracy of the listings since contact information may change at any time.

Before the popularity of the internet, business telephone numbers in the United Kingdom could be searched by accessing a remote computer terminal by modem. This dialup service was discontinued (as was a similar system called Phonebase for published residential phone numbers) in the 1990s, being superseded a web-based search interface.

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[edit] History

Among the first to place their listings on the Web was Pacific Bell's now-defunct “At Hand” online yellow pages that was officially launched on August 30, 1996. At Hand debuted with approximately 1.2 million merchant listings from across California. At the time, the service was competing with BigBook.com, a nationwide Web directory has since been absorbed by SuperPages.

Although it is “old hat” now, At Hand allowed an online visitor to look for a French restaurant in a given town and get an interactive map. If the restaurant has paid for an enhanced listing, the visitor could also find out other information, such as whether it took American Express or if it served bouillabaise. At Hand showcased editorial content from 14 publishers, including HarperCollins, the Hearst Corporation, the New York Times Company and American Express.

Another early entrant into the then-$11 billion yellow pages industry occurred in 1997 when four Baby Bells banded together to create a co-branded Web site and initiated a $1 million marketing campaign to drive more traffic to their regional yellow pages sites. That "original yellow pages" site was simply a map of the U.S., where users could click on any state and be linked to the appropriate online directory, as published by Ameritech, BellSouth, Pacific Bell, or US West. The site experienced stiff competition from Big Yellow (now part of SuperPages) and SuperPages itself.

On Nov. 4, 2004 SBC Communications Inc (now AT&T) and BellSouth announced a joint venture to acquire Yellowpages.com. The venture utilized the highly recognized brand name to become the market leader in local search (Internet). At the time of acquisitions, it was expected that the YellowPages.com site would receive more than 50 million consumer searches per month.

In 2005, Amazon.com elbowed its way into the online yellow pages business, with a new service from its A9.com search engine, featuring photo-rich listings that allow an online visitor to “wander around” near a given destination.

According to market research company the Kelsey Group, advertising in online yellow pages is rapidly expanding but still only retain less than 7% of the total market, including online and print. The reason for this is that traditional yellow pages publishers, such as the phone companies, have big sales forces to approach local businesses.

MarketWatch, an online financial newsletter, carried an article on Dec. 18, 2006 detailing how mobile online yellow pages were enhancing small business lead generation. The article noted that Internet-based yellow pages, local search and wireless was growing by an estimated 30.5% versus print advertising, and that a company could only benefit from this online growth by being listed in an Internet-based directory.

[edit] Nowadays

The current online yellow pages market has expanded to the point where it includes a number of specialty sites, touting features that differentiate them from the rest of the field. An example of this are websites like CopperPages.com or IndianPages.net which offer listings for Indians living abroad or those outside of India looking for Indian goods and services. Another example is CityBook.com, a “family-safe” guide of 16 million listings. The directory boasts of its rigorous selection process and suitability for children and value-conscious adults. Another such site is Complaints.com, a site that publicizes consumer complaints. Scuba Yellow Pages is a directory and informational resource for scuba diving, including equipment, resorts, travel, training, dive sites and general scuba diving information topics. List of Yellow Pages showed the growing variants of yellow pages which are country or national based such as the Nigerian Yellow Pages. An example of a local internet based directory is ImageForward.com, which delivers local business contact information based more on city, county or state level searches.

FREE community yellow pages are becoming popular. The first not-for-profit organization to start this movement is DiasPages.com.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Wired.com. Baby Bells Ring In Online Yellow Pages. Retrieved on 9 June, 2007.
  • BusinessWeek. Amazon Elbows Into Online Yellow Pages. Retrieved on 9 June, 2007.
  • CNet News. Pages to come At Hand. Retrieved on 9 June, 2007.
  • Inside Indiana Business. SBC, BellSouth to Acquire Online Yellow Pages. Retrieved on 9 June, 2007.
  • USA Today. Online Yellow Pages take you on virtual stroll. Retrieved on 9 June, 2007.

[edit] External links

  • EADP - European Association of Directory Publishers
  • EADP Directories Listing of directories worldwide