I have four copies of the yellow pages at my house. They just keep piling up, but I almost never use them. I can find any number I need online. When it comes to personal calls, most of my friends don’t have landlines anymore, so I gave the white pages the heave-ho years ago.
We’ve decided to do a story on the future of the phone book. Is this something you use regularly, or has it become an obsolete technology?
We’re not really sure what approach we’re going to take to the story, so your comments would be helpful. We’re looking for your opinions and your stories.
Have you found a new use for your phone book, or do you know someone who is doing something cool with old phone books?
Do you think we should have a registry in Canada where you can unsubscribe from the phone book so it doesn’t show up on your doorstep again? I found this site today.
Post your comments below or send us an email and we’ll try to work your comments into the story.
Photo by PinkMoose
Since I live in the country — an hour from town and six hours from a major city (Edmonton) — I still use the Yellow Pages. We have to hand in a card just to get ONE copy and last year we missed out because there were none left!! I often can’t find what I need on the internet Yellow Pages, at least nothing local. If I want something in a major centre like Edmonton, I can find just about anything.
As far as people who do ingenious things with their yellow pages, I have seen crafters on the Internet to actually make bowls — yes bowls — out of their old magazines, newspapers, and yellow pages.
From a field NW of Hythe (where in the world is Hythe, Alberta)??
I also used to live in northern Alberta. (No, not Hythe, but I know where that is..) Our phone book covered our town, and a number of other towns around it. All told, it was the size of a magazine. I used it a lot. It was reasonably accurate, and like others have said, the online resources don’t cover smaller areas.
Now I’m living amongst the big lights of the big city of Calgary. (yuck, but that’s another story) After only two years, I have seen a stack of phone books hit my door step for me to haul off the the recycling depot. Because of mobile phones, personal numbers are often not listed, and any business I’m looking for is usually listed online.
Small town – Yes for the phone book.
Big city – No for the phone book.
Now, about the traffic….
Full disclosure, I am the Director of Corporate Communications for Yellow Pages Group. While we clearly have a particular view on this issue, it’s one that we think is important to share. First off, we’re happy to read that many of you continue to be satisfied with our print and online directories. For those of you who aren’t, we respect your opinions but we do want to clarify some misconceptions.
While the local search needs of Canadians are clearly changing, this isn’t happening nearly as fast as we might think. Our print directories are still used by the masses. In fact, approximately 70% of Canadians use the print directory every month. While this might be surprising, Canadians between the ages of 18 and 24 use a print directory as often, if not more, than the population in general.
For the wired folks and web savvy out there, you’d surely be happy to know that we’ve harnessed the latest technologies to provide you with many other ways to find what you’re looking for. In addition to http://www.YellowPages.ca and http://www.Canada411.ca you can now get directory listings through your cell phone (mobile.yp.ca), by texting (YELLOW) and even via instant messaging (poynt@yellowpages.ca).
We’re very sympathetic to your environmental concerns and we want to assure you that we’re committed to minimizing our impact. For example, our directories are made from post-consumer recycled fibre and residual wood chips so, contrary to popular belief, no new trees are cut down. We distribute our residential directory only every two years instead of every year in certain large urban markets to reduce our paper use. We also work with municipalities and businesses to ensure they get recycled. If you want to learn more about our environmental initiatives, see http://www.ypg.com/environment.
It’s also nice to see that I’m not the only one who thinks artwork made from old Yellow Pages directories is cool! In fact, I encourage you to look up Jérôme Fortin, a young Quebec artist that we know well who creates unique pieces out of recycled Yellow Pages™ directories.
Wow! Great comments everyone. This will really help with our story.
Arex B, adrienne, Michael O’Malley, Daisy O’Byrne, Sarah Solberg, girlie grace, Allister Schreiber, Diane Schuller, Henrik Wolter, TimothyPilgrim, graeme and pboel, I am keen to use your comments in the show. I’ll be sending some of you guys an email asking you to leave a message on our voicemail with your comment. Talk soon!
Elizabeth
Me again.
Jackie, we’d love to have you on our program to chat about using the web in the North. Are you game?
My first reaction was don’t print the phone book. My second reaction is here we all are on-line commenting about this and we are a minority. I believe that the penetration of PC’s into the home is still pretty low, so for most people the phone book is pretty relevant.
I also suffer from several incomplete yellow pages being dropped at my house as the market gets opened up. That is unfortunate, as I often used the monopolized version when it was around.
Now there is 1-800-GOOG411, and everyone who gets a phone book has a phone.
My final thought – who needs a phone book when there is GOOG411.
Jim
Further to my comment about GOOG411. It really only replaces the yellow pages, and there will always be people who prefer hard-copy, but it sure lends credence to an opt-out for the yellow pages. Just like the do-not-call list.
I also don’t understand the business model of this service. Offered by Google for no fee. Obviously leverages their search capabilities, but 1-800 numbers aren’t free, and there is no advertising on the call other than you know you are using a Google service.
It works really well and they will even text you the results of your request if you are on a phone capable of getting an SMS.
Thanks,
Jim
What happens when your computer fails you and you need a computer technician? Where are you going to find a telephone number then?
There’s still use for telephone books and people still use them.
What format is your daily paper? Probably paper? People still read their newspaper in print mode and not online.
What happens when your blackberry goes down? And, it has happened.
Finding a telephone online isn’t as easy as all these people claim it is. I’ve had difficulty finding a well known law firm online until I was so frustrated and had to call someone I knew that would have the number. You get too much information online. Actually, more than you really need. Instead of spending one minute looking something up, you end up spending 20-30 minutes because you end up going off on a tangent. How much time do you have to waste?
And unless your computer is already booted up, the printed book is faster to look up anything. Most people, at least at home, do not have their computers running all the time. By the time it finishes booting up, you could have already found what you’re looking for in the telephone book.
Why do we have different types of screw drivers: phillips, robertson, etc.?
Why do we have books/novels? We can listen to this in digital format.
I think a lot of peoples have forgotten the other information that is available in a telephone book: maps, stadium layouts that are good for ordering tickets, community information and contacts, telephone service features, some provide full addresses including postal codes and more…
The Internet is great, but when I’m looking for a Plumber, I don’t need one from BC.
They really don’t cost anything to the end users. With the Internet, I’m paying for the service monthly. So searches do cost me something.
I know of someone who was looking for a fireplace and actually tore out the fireplace section of the phonebook and went visiting suppliers with the ads in hand. Online, he would have had to print them out. Doesn’t that cost money?
There are still benefits to having telephone books.
I ride my bicycle indoors from time to time. The back wheel is held by an indoor trainer with a roller, and I put the telephone book under the front wheel so the bike is level. That’s the only use the phone book sees in our house.
I don’t really think a registry is required for it. In my own experience living in an apartment, when the new books come out they sit in a pile for residents if they want a copy. But I think the number of books printed could be reduced. I think more and more people will move to getting numbers online or through the 411 service.
Personally, I haven’t used the printed white pages in years. Nor do I use the yellow pages. I have an old copy of each sitting on top of my fridge. Dust them off and they’d be in pristine condition
But for a lot of people I can see it not yet being obsolete.
I would love to opt out of getting the yearly replacement directories. I don’t need Telus White pages; Telus Yellow pages; Canpages or two EZ Business Finders (1 large and 1 small) which have recently arrived and have moved from the front porch to the back door awaiting recycling.
Great for people who want them but a colossal waste of time and resources for those of us that don’t. Is there any way to stop this relentless tide of paper?
This is an interesting coincidence. I tripped over the newly delivered phonebooks last night then heard this topic on the podcast this afternoon. I have just put the old books in the recycle bin and the new ones on top of the fridge, where they will sit until next year when the next ones arrive. I haven’t used a paper phonebook in years (in fact, I can’t remember the last time I used one). I use Google and Canada411 very frequently. If there were a way of refusing delivery of physical phone books, I would sign up in a heartbeat.
I am 37, worth in technology but I do not live it (I don’t Twitter, Stumble, or 2nd Life and am only reluctantly on Facebook.) I haven’t used the phone book in about a year and even previously, I used it very rarely, and pretty much exclusively used it for business white pages when I was home and couldn’t be bothered to turn the computer on.
As I see it, the main problems with the phone book are:
* The phone book does not list people with cell phones. This hugely limits the number of people I can find.
* The phone book also probably does not list people on VoIP.
* I never know if people are listed under their surname or their spouse’s surname. (I suppose there’s some way to have your number listed under both but I don’t know anybody who’s looked into this.) And chances are I don’t know their spouse’s surname.
* The business yellow pages? If I want a plumber I’ll solicit recommendations from my friends, not browse aimlessly through adds in the yellow pages.
* And, of course, the massive use of paper.
* And with computers and cellphones, I have an electronic copy of my personal “black book” address book on hand with me at all times, so I rarely have a need for the personal white pages.
And then just last year, some YellowPages competitor (GoPages or something?) started dropping off phone books to my house in Ottawa. I couldn’t believe it: what sort of backwards business model and lack of concern for the environment could produce such a thing.?
We recently moved to rural Alberta from Winnipeg, Manitoba. We are very close to Calgary but far enough that I want to know exactly where I am going before I drive into town for something. So I tend to call around and make sure what I want is in stock and where the business is located. I have tried to look things up on the net, as I have so far been unable to get my hands on either the white pages or the yellow pages of the Calgary phone book. I am finding to my great surprise that many businesses do not seem to have web sites. All I get when I search are the commercial listings of a small number of local businesses (mostly out of business) and then some from the US thrown in, apparently for fun. Things like trying to find a hair salon, a walk-in clinic, or a dry-cleaner remotely close to where we live have turned into monumental tasks. I desperately want a phone book! I did receive a card saying I could go to the local community hall to pick up phone books, but when I got there all I found was a sign saying they weren’t available yet. Yes, phone books continue to fill an important function. And they will do so until there is a high level of uniformity to online listings of businesses.
I'm 50 and still use the phone book at home and at work. At work it's still my habit to reach for the phone book on the reference desk (I work in a library) even though there's a computer with internet access right in front of me. I'm perfectly aware of and often use Canada411.ca, google and other telephone directories but my impulse is to use what's ingrained.
At home I don't have the internet. Not because I don't like it or don't know how to use it. On the contrary, I use it constantly at work and see it as a valuable tool in making information accessible to people (if they know how to use it properly and learn how to sift and evaluate the information they find). I don't have the internet at home because it's fairly expensive to set up and upgrade a computer system and/or PDAs, and have high speed internet. Someone posted that Google is free. No, it's not. I'd rather spend my money on other things.
I'd also like to address the wasted paper comments. It's true that a lot of paper is used for phone books (not to mention newspapers, flyers, pizza boxes, product packaging, toilet paper and the other massive amounts of paper paraphernalia floating around in our wasteful culture). I'd like to see all of that reduced too. But I think there's a bit of that "greener than thou" attitude, that's so prevalent right now, going on. There was a feature on CBC (was it on Spark?) last year about the massive amounts of energy needed to power internet servers and infrastructure. So, we can point out one environmental problem while refusing to examine the one attached to something that we like to do.
I do think that phone books will eventually become a thing of the past. The world changes. But we're still in transition and it's not just the out of touch, "unconnected" relics of the past who use the phone book.
@Rita,
Thanks for your comments (yes, it was our show that did the piece on the carbon footprint of ICT). I use the phone book when the computer isn’t on, so I definitely hear you. We probably could have been clearer in our setup. We’re not saying people shouldn’t use phone books, but rather that people who don’t use them should be able to opt out of getting them. I’m happy this post has sparked so much commentary. Totally interesting!
I run a small business and every year I place a modest ad in the yellow page directory (two different books). I am charged what I think is a pretty hefty some for a small ad, I can’t imagine what a full page ad would cost. Long and short of it is, the directory sells ads, the white pages just tag along. As long as they sell the ads they will print the book.
If i need a number quick, the Yellow book is a lot faster than waiting for the computer to boot up and might actually be better for the environment (depending on how many boot-ups are saved). If you are looking for a business that isn’t necessarily tech-savvy, the online results dont actually tell as much as the paper because the paper ads have more personality and only serious business have large ads. Also on paper i can make notes on each page about each business regarding what i have learned about them. (this can be important when you research suppliers) How do you do that online? Also the electronic results are inaccurate. But we need to reduce waste, so i’m ready to live without the big book if it helps. But we can’t assume the book is harder on the environment; as Rita points out, the server farms, etc, have their own impact too. We need better environmental accounting before deciding.
If the phone book came as a spreadsheet file (ie .xls or .ods) that i could customize, alter and annotate and print out only those categories/listings of interest to me that would be cool.
Phone books are an obscenity. It’s one more failure of the Hartler government that we don’t have a national initiative to reduce, reuse and recycle.
I haven’t used one of those papersaurs in 8 years. Yet, every year they squat and deposit one on my doorstep.
I will go further than phone books. Why are we still using text books – another stupendous waste? In Korea, all students must use a heavily subsidized tablet computer and they have made deals with all the publishers so the content is paid for and updated constantly.
Paper book too are another matter and must be eliminated as well, although that may take a decade or more.
Here are some very disturbing facts about phone books from yellowpagesgogreen…
5. How many fully developed trees are needed to make a ton of paper? 24 trees
6. How many gallons of oil are needed to produce a ton of paper? 380 gallons
7. How many cubic yards of waste is taken up by a ton of paper? 3 cubic yards
8. How many gallons of water are needed to produce a ton of paper? 7,000 gallons
9. How many kilowatts of energy are needed to produce a ton of paper? 4,000
10. How many directories are printed for EVERY man, woman, and child in the United States? 1.79 books per person*
I agree.
It is a terrible waste and we should not be forced accept them.
It makes us so mad that we leave it lying on the front stoop for days- hoping someone will come back and take it away.
411 should be desinged so that instead of giving you the number it just calls the person, that way it will make knowing phonenumbers obsolete.
I don't know for YPG but at least I know Canpages is environmentally friendly:
http://corporate.canpages.ca/EN/carbon_neutral_ce…
You should try to use their website too. I always used to get lost with unrelated data when I was using ypg… now I get what I want and receive everything on my mobile, for free… at least they're evolving…
My question would be, does every single person in this dippy electronic world believe every single person in the world has a stinking computer or a lousy smart phone
Pleasant select