Yellow Pages
Green Would Be Better
Every year stacks of Yellow Pages books arrive at my building where they sit until delivered to the front doors. From there 90% of them are dropped down the rubbish shaft. There’s definately something wrong with this picture. The Internet is here; Google is King. To continue printing this book, at least in the numbers they do is a shame. I guess it gives them “distribution numbers dialog” when selling ads. It would be good for the planet if people could request printed Yellow Pages, at least until they either go out of business or entirely on line.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Hello all,
Perhaps printing these YPs in the numbers that they do IS no longer necessary, for reasons other than Google.Could be that a person should have to order and pay for one? Here in South Africa (generalising of course!), they seem to be a Linus blanket of sorts, you know, “where’s my Yellow Pages, my OWN one, not the tatty shared one from the front office?”
Now, how much they are used or consulted is anyone’s guess, but I must say that I LOVE my hard copy. Electronic means of finding names and numbers etc of goods and services can be really testing just to get to the darn page with the info you need, there is so much ‘click-thru’ required, and even then, you will get more links. In the YP, I can scribble names and extra numbers, prices … I can doodle, get cross, get other numbers, check out categories I never thought about, do quick price and service comparisons, see what the competition may be up to, learn lots and get answers. And all this quickly, at the turn of a page. Building up a data base is also easier for me … market research numbers, And there are no cookies or spyware or viral identity gathering … where what why when how and all those questions are more easily answered. And I am holding something definite in my hands. And all because I need a plumber…
Cheers
Lestie
Johannesburg, South Africa
P S I don’t work for the Yellow Pages! Grin.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
There are too many books.
There are the Haw’n. Tel white and yellow pages. Another one called Paradise
Yellow pages. Then smaller versions which are for areas of the island.
I simply can’t believe we need all these books to find one number.
Stop the waste!
January 8th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Toss the books. Just dial 411 or go to Google. This is 2009. Yellow Page ads cost a fortune. One has to be an idiot to pay for one.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I’m with Lestie. I use my phone book and yellow pages frequently. Maybe there could be a way to tell “someone” that you want these books or not. But that would then affect what they could charge for advertising. I live in a neighborhood of 70% elderly people. I bet that most of them rely on phone books and aren’t up on the internet or googling.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
It’s really a shame that there is still so little concern for our natural resources. Newspapers, paper bags, magazines, junk mail, discount coupons; what else? Oh yeah; Christmas trees.
Times are changing and we cannot keep cutting down trees just to satisfy “old people.” It would be cheaper to buy them computers and teach them how to use them. In those “old days” there were not as many people, no other options, and not so much waste. How long ago did Bob Dylan sing, “The times they are a changing?” I think it was before computers were being used by individuals.
January 12th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Here in Norway someone set up a webpage couple of years ago, where you can actually ‘unsubscribe’ from the printed book. Regular phonebook, YP, all of it. Thousands of people did, and amongst all of my network I believe the only ones still receiving the books are my parents in their late eighties.
Maybe an idea for more to places to copy?
March 29th, 2010 at 8:57 am
There is something you can do. Get involved online, and show these companies that we don’t want these things anymore!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114104115266913