Electronic Yellow Pages
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 map
s, 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was discontinued (as was a similar system called Phonebase for published residential phone numbers) in the 1990s, being superseded a web-based search interface.
'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
that was since 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 Incorporated (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.
carry a significant number of business listings, often rivaling and sometimes exceeding the number of listings found in the traditional online yellow pages. These search engine results are a very effective way to reach new customers.
Search engine listings can often be edited by users, not just business owners. It is therefore important for business owners to verify and register their business address with all the major search engines.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
versions of traditional printed business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
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 map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
s, 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
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
could be searched by accessing a remote computer terminal
Computer terminal
A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system...
by modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
. This dialup
Dial-up access
Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network to establish a dialled connection to an Internet service provider via telephone lines...
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.
History
Among the first to place their listings on the Web was Pacific BellPacific Bell
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was the name of the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It gained in size by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917...
's now-defunct “At Hand” online yellow pages
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages refers to a telephone directory of businesses, organized by category, rather than alphabetically by business name and in which advertising is sold. As the name suggests, such directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings...
that was officially launched on August 30, 1996. At Hand debuted with approximately 1.2 million merchant listings from across California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. At the time, the service was competing with BigBook.com, a nationwide Web directory
Web directory
A web directory or link directory is a directory on the World Wide Web. It specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links....
that was since 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
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
. If the restaurant has paid for an enhanced listing, the visitor could also find out other information, such as whether it took American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
or if it served bouillabaise. At Hand showcased editorial content from 14 publishers, including HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, the Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
, the New York Times Company and American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
.
Another early entrant into the then-$11 billion yellow pages
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages refers to a telephone directory of businesses, organized by category, rather than alphabetically by business name and in which advertising is sold. As the name suggests, such directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings...
industry occurred in 1997 when four Baby Bells banded together to create a co-branded Web site and initiated a $1 million marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
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
Ameritech
AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation , was a U.S. telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies that was created following the breakup of the Bell System...
, BellSouth
BellSouth
BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
, Pacific Bell
Pacific Bell
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was the name of the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It gained in size by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917...
, or US West
US West
U S WEST, Inc. was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies , created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement , a case related to the antitrust breakup of AT&T...
. The site experienced stiff competition from Big Yellow (now part of SuperPages) and SuperPages itself.
On Nov. 4, 2004 SBC Communications Incorporated (now AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
) and BellSouth
BellSouth
BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
announced a joint venture to acquire Yellowpages.com
YELLOWPAGES.COM
YELLOWPAGES.com is an Internet web site operated by YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T..-History:Both sites' operations were merged into Yellowpages.com in 2005. As a result of SBC Communications' merger with AT&T, the post merger AT&T wholly owned an additional...
. The venture utilized the highly recognized brand name to become the market leader in local search (Internet)
Local search (Internet)
Local search is the use of specialized Internet search engines that allow users to submit geographically constrained searches against a structured database of local business listings...
. At the time of acquisitions, it was expected that the YellowPages.com site would receive more than 50 million consumer
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
searches per month.
In 2005, Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
elbowed its way into the online yellow pages business, with a new service from its A9.com
A9.com
A9.com is a subsidiary of Amazon.com based in Palo Alto, California that develops search engine technology. A9 currently has over 100 employees in its Palo Alto, Bangalore, and Dublin offices.A9 has worked in 3 areas over the years....
search engine, featuring photo-rich listings that allow an online visitor to “wander around” near a given destination.
According to market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
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
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
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
MarketWatch
MarketWatch operates a financial information website that provides business news, analysis and stock market data to some 6 million people. MarketWatch offers personal finance news and advice, tools for investors and access to industry research. Along with its flagship website, the company operates...
, an online financial newsletter, carried an article on Dec. 18, 2006 detailing how mobile online yellow pages were enhancing small business
Small business
A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
lead generation. The article noted that Internet-based yellow pages, local search and wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
was growing by an estimated 30.5% versus print advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, and that a company could only benefit from this online growth by being listed in an Internet-based directory.
Search Engines
Search engines such as Google MapsGoogle Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
carry a significant number of business listings, often rivaling and sometimes exceeding the number of listings found in the traditional online yellow pages. These search engine results are a very effective way to reach new customers.
Search engine listings can often be edited by users, not just business owners. It is therefore important for business owners to verify and register their business address with all the major search engines.
See also
- Yellow PagesYellow PagesYellow Pages refers to a telephone directory of businesses, organized by category, rather than alphabetically by business name and in which advertising is sold. As the name suggests, such directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings...
- List of Yellow Pages
- White pagesTelephone directoryA telephone directory is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory...
- Residential (as opposed to commercial) counterpart of the Yellow Pages - Blue pagesBlue pagesBlue pages was a telephone directory listing of government agencies and other official entities, along with specific offices, departments, or bureaus located wherein. They are now defunct and no longer supported by the federal government...
- Government related counterpart - YellowikisYellowikisYellowikis is a MediaWiki website collecting basic information about businesses. This information includes basic contact details such as company name, address, websites, and telephone numbers, as well as internal Yellowiki wikilinks to competitors. Yellowikis was launched in January 2005...
- Video Yellow Pages
External links
- EADP - European Association of Directory Publishers
- EADP Directories Listing of directories worldwide