Did You Hear – White Pages Are Obsolete!
November 11th, 2010Recently I had a prospective client who did appliance repair tell me that websites for small business owners are not needed, because when people need an appliance repaired, they always use their phone books. I told him I didn’t even have a phone book. He thought I was lying. Now I realize the white pages are not the yellow pages, but surely this article would have helped me win the debate: White Pages Face Last Call: Residential Phone Books’ Days Are Numbered
“Telephone companies argue that most consumers now check the Internet rather than flip through pages when they want to reach out and touch someone.”
I’d imagine the yellow pages will follow the same trend…
Jill--------------
J. Olkoski
Aldebaran Web Design, Seattle
Jill Olkoski has a BS in Engineering, a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Clinical Psychology. She delights in using her advanced technical and psychological skills to help small business owners develop cost-effective and successful websites.
November 12th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Some people only believe what they want to hear.
Am not surprised about companies wanting to ditch delivering and or printing phone books. I recall being called by one of the girls in reception, at the company where I used to be employed, around 5 years back wanting someone from our dept to collect some yellow pages. I dropped by on my way back from the coffee machine and there was a stack perhaps 4 ft high x 3. These were the ones left after people who wanted them had already had 2 weeks to pick them up. I took a couple to keep the peace and put them in the recycle bin.
November 14th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Jill, I think you are ‘spot on’. I haven’t opened a phone book in years. I’m 48 years old, an ‘old geezer’ by many standards, but I don’t believe I am in the minority at all.
Phone book days are numbered like most other printed media. I don’t read newspapers, (paper) books, nor hardly any other ‘paper’ media but rather get any small business information I am looking for via the Web.
If a small business does NOT have a small business website, then they are at a disadvantage. Small business MUST come to that realization or be left behind just like phone books.
Thanks for the great, thought-provoking post.
Roger D.
November 15th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Hi Roger,
I didn’t approve your follow-up comment regarding your complaint that I removed the link you added to your comment.
As an FYI, WordPress blogs don’t share any “link juice” within the comments sections. URL’s posted by commenters get nofollow added. Even if you are unaware of this functionality, when you post a comment in the hopes of getting link juice in return, in my definition that’s spam. Because your comment was good, I didn’t delete it, but I removed your URL because I don’t, as a rule, link to any competitors websites.