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If you're like me and live in a flat, you probably have a table in the front hall groaning with junk mail, letters for previous tenants -- and phone books. Every year four large volumes of the Yellow Pages, four copies of the BT phone book and four copies of the Thomson Local Directory are delivered to that hall table in shrink-wrapped slendour, and every year I put all twelve volumes into the green Haringey recycling bin.
Surely, you've probably screamed, it doesn't have to be this way! Well, the marketing types at 192.com have started a campaign to allow people to opt out of Yellow Pages and BT Phone Book deliveries, in the same way that you can use the Mailing Preference Service to opt out of recieving junk mail. Self-interest marketing stunt from an online vendor? Absolutely. But the company's also right. If I could easily opt out and stop recieving dead tree directory spam several times a year, I would do it in a heartbeat. You can vindicate 192's marketing strategy by visiting the campaign site, saynotophonebooks.com.
The fact is, we simply don't use directories anymore. Our friends give us their numbers and we put them on our mobiles, and everyone moves around so much that the chances of a print product tracking their movements correctly are virtually nil. When we're looking up business information, why use a directory? Chances are you've already got a perfectly good internet connection, so it makes sense to go online instead of using paper directories that are quickly out of date, offer less information and can't provide other real-time goodies. It's a daft business, printing books that people don't use, driving them to people's houses and then sending another van to drive them to be pulped. And it's just not very smart.
You've also got to look at the whole context in which we're looking up contact numbers. If you're planning a shopping trip you're usually looking for some details of what might be in stock, opening times and directions. You can use Google to access the company website and get answers to all of these questions, assuming the company has a half-decent one, and then use Google Maps to plan your journey. You also won't be charged for the call and won't have to listen to an instrumental version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight while you're on hold, waiting to talk to a bored receptionist.
According to BT's website, a third of its customers recycle their Yellow Pages and BT Phone Books -- which means that the other two-thirds don't. That seems odd, given that over 99 per cent of local authorities are set up to recycle them, presumably as part of their normal paper recycling work. I rang Haringey Council just to confirm that they're cool with us sticking those big yellow monsters in the ordinary green recycling boxes, and to make sure that's where they're supposed to go. They are cool with it and the green bin is the right place. Yell.com also has a site with recycling tips you can check out.
The non-recycling two-thirds could very well be storing their phone books like valuable treasures, but I suspect not. I reckon those phone books just end up in landfill sites.
Recycling isn't the answer. Rather, phone books, like gas-guzzling cars and cheap air fares, are so last year. Now that over two-thirds of the country has access to the internet, people are surely using their paper directories less and less. I reckon that phone books are on the way out -- so let them fade away gradually, and provide small numbers for the elderly, the unconnected and the paper fetishists. The rest of us are done.
What do you think? Are you happy to let your fingers do the walking, or would you prefer to let you mouse do the stalking? Let us know in the comments below.
28 May 2008 01:33pm
I HATE phone books. If I'm at home, I'm going to use Google; if I'm out and about I'll use 118 118. As well as a landfill menace, printed phone books also offend my minimalist sensibilities and clutter up my house! I don't want a book the size of the Britannia encyclopedia in my living room. That's why I digitised my CD collection and stuck in the loft.
28 May 2008 02:42pm
You can use http://yell.com , it will show updated info, together with maps, related information, and much more...
28 May 2008 04:03pm
Internet shminternet. Books never go offline or experience database errors. Give me mushed up trees, or give me death!
28 May 2008 05:11pm
Did you know that phone books are incredibly difficult to burn - I once went to an incinerator and was told that phone books are one of the most flame and heat resilient objects out there.
28 May 2008 05:54pm
Phone books have so many uses: monitor stand, impromptu stepladder, defensive weapon, ballast... They just aren't that useful for finding phone numbers. I can't remember the last time I looked in the regular version, and our Yellow Pages isn't actually very helpful -- we live right on the edge of the area it covers, so half of the numbers we want aren't in it.
29 May 2008 08:47am
It's been very many years since I found a phone book of any use. Same with Yellow Pages, although I also now realise that I actually see Yellow Pages as just a big bunch of paid adverts, so if I want a local tradesman I go looking for a more personal recommendation anyway - often online!
30 May 2008 11:53pm
Hi
we are trying to setup an opt in system for phone book distribution. The people who want phone books can get phone books but the rest of us don't have to get them.
We are starting out on a local level--any ideas are welcome.
paul
stopthephonebooks.com
01 June 2008 10:57pm
Hi,
We got so fed up with phone books that we started www.brownbook.net, an online directory where we can all edit, add and review any business. Its based on wikipedia type principals.
The days of the phone book are definitely numbered for many reasons; do we really need a printed book anymore, do we really use them; if you own a business you will know that it is expensive to advertise in these directories, but when you take away the cost of producing millions of printed directories it would be a lot cheaper, but are the directory producers going to let that happen when they are making very handsome profits printing those books; is there value anymore in centrally producing directories or can we do it better ourselves, as business owners and as users of local businesses, we know best so surely we can do it ourselves - hence why we created brownbook, its time for a big change in the directory business.
ben[AT]brownbook[DOT]net
05 June 2008 03:37pm
They are great for wiping your arse when you run out of bog roll especially now the ink doesnt smudge
05 June 2008 03:59pm
Back off slagging off directories, I work in the industry (not for a publisher) and there are still many businesses that want to advertise in them and many people who want to receive the printed version at home. Not everyone has access or can afford the internet and if you can, unless you have your pc on constantly, its a lot quicker to look in a directory and you burn less electricity! Using a directory gives you huge choice. Internet search engines prioritise companies based on who pays the most money.
14 July 2008 02:53pm
Consumers can 'opt out' of receiving telephone books at www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. We will contact the publishers and inform them to stop delivering books. This is a free service for consumers. www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is working with state and local governments on ordinances concerning the delivery of unsolicited telephone books. www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is not against the telephone books but against the delivery of 4 to 5 pounds of paper on people's door step 5 to 6 times per year and being told it is our responsibility to recycle something we did not ask for. If we need a book we will call. Otherwise I 'opt out' from receiving it.
24 July 2008 01:36am
if you really want to control the number of books simply allow only one company in any market to deliver them. This however would spit in the face of capitalism and would force the government to control the pricing. The phone book is still the best source ot find LOCAL companies to do business with. The internet is too vast and full of usless information. I will use the internet to do research, but i use the phone book to make a purchase. People who give up advertising in the phone book for ads on the internet whould know that only 2% of clicks turn into a phone call. Phone books still get over 14 billion references annualy. that may not sound like much compared to the trillion searches done on the internet. But, when a person goes to the phone book they are not looking for reading material. They go there to make a purchase. Do some research before spouting off next time. go to www.yptalk.com/
09 September 2008 07:52pm
you can also opt out of delivery for your free local newspaper. http://www.stopmylocalpaper.org Let me know what you think.... nick2727@gmail.com
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