Electronic Yellow Pages

Last updated

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 maps, company profiles, product information, and more.

Contents

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. The initial prototype of this was superseded in 1990 with a commercial service. This service allowed searches via Name, Business classification and locality for business listings and a free text field was provided to allow "unstructured text" searching of Adverts. This dialup service was available via Prestel and "BT Gold" services. The service Electronic Yellow Pages was superseded in the mid-1990s by the internet service www.yell.com. A similar system called Phonebase for published residential phone numbers was discontinued in the 1990s, being superseded by a web-based search interface.

History

The first true online Yellow Pages, was a creation based on the independent YP publisher in Seattle, Washington called Banana Pages. This was the first print directory which was registered with both YPPA (the Yellow Pages Publishers Association), and the ADP (Association of Directory Publishers) to place their listings online. The Yellow Pages product was the brain child of the co-owner brothers of the company, Peter and John Richards. Many RBOCS (Regional Bell Operating Companies) would follow. Banana Pages eventually became YPI (Yellow Pages on the Internet, Inc) which was sold to InfoSpace.com and became their Yellow Pages offering to cobrands.

Among the first to place their listings on the Web was Pacific Bell'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 bouillabaisse. 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 United States, 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.

Search Engines

Search engines such as Google Maps 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.

Some of the problems associated with search engine advertising is click fraud. This is when ads are clicked on with no intention of purchasing anything. The search engines still charge the advertiser for these clicks, if the advertiser does not discover the fraud. Many online advertisers have discovered that clicks do not equal calls.

Many small businesses find the search engine keyword model very complicated. The average category in an Internet Yellow Pages would take an average of 20different keywords/search terms to "cover" on a search engine. For example, a plumber might need to buy leaky sink, leaky pipe, Toilet repair, sink repair, drain cleaning and on and on. It is easier for many businesses to buy an ad under "plumbers" in their local IYP's.

Migration of Physical Publishers to Electronic Yellow Pages

Electronic Yellow Pages or Online Yellow Pages use software to quickly edit and change online content for display on the internet. Printed Yellow Pages or business directories often discontinue publication to limit printing costs and instead publish directly to the internet as a web directory. Online yellow pages or directories continue publishing online because advertisers pay for the visual exposure from those who read or use these online publications on the internet. Publishers or people that create these online directories create software with their own resources or use opensource or Off-the shelf software to build their website or online directory. Banana Pages was an online directory function built with their own resources. The cost of online yellow pages or online directory software is limited compared to the large cost of physical printing and distribution of a phone book or directory of information.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone directory</span> Book that lists phone numbers of people and businesses

A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory. Its purpose is to allow the telephone number of a subscriber identified by name and address to be found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellow pages</span> Telephone directory of businesses by category

The yellow pages are telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings. The traditional term "yellow pages" is now also applied to online directories of businesses.

Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of performance-based marketing where the commission acts as an incentive for the affiliate; this commission is usually a percentage of the price of the product being sold, but can also be a flat rate per referral.

Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google. They can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta-tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering. In Q1 2014, Google earned US$3.4 billion, or 22% of total revenue, through Google AdSense. AdSense is a participant in the AdChoices program, so AdSense ads typically include the triangle-shaped AdChoices icon. This program also operates on HTTP cookies. In 2021, over 38.3 million websites use AdSense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Ads</span> Online advertising platform owned by Google

Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, and videos to web users. It can place ads in the results of search engines like Google Search, mobile apps, videos, and on non-search websites. Services are offered under a pay-per-click (PPC) pricing model.

Yahoo! Native is a native "Pay per click" Internet advertising service provided by Yahoo.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher when the ad is clicked.

Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. Online advertising includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising, and mobile advertising. Advertisements are increasingly being delivered via automated software systems operating across multiple websites, media services and platforms, known as programmatic advertising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hibu</span> Provider of web development and hosting

Hibu Inc., formerly Yellowbook Inc., is a provider of web development and hosting, digital listings and reputation management, search engine and social media marketing, and digital advertisements. Hibu is headquartered in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings and increase the Call to action (CTA) on the website.

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. Typical local search queries include not only information about "what" the site visitor is searching for but also "where" information, such as a street address, city name, postal code, or geographic coordinates like latitude and longitude. Examples of local searches include "Hong Kong hotels", "Manhattan restaurants", and "Dublin car rental". Local searches exhibit explicit or implicit local intent. A search that includes a location modifier, such as "Bellevue, WA" or "14th arrondissement", is an explicit local search. A search that references a product or service that is typically consumed locally, such as "restaurant" or "nail salon", is an implicit local search.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) are the pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by a user. The main component of the SERP is the listing of results that are returned by the search engine in response to a keyword query.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">YP Holdings</span> Funds

YP Holdings, now a wholly owned subsidiary of DexYP, is the American parent company for YP LLC. Its products include printed telephone directories, yp.com and YP app. YP offers local search, display ads and direct marketing. On July 31, 2012, YP was included in PaidContent50's list of "the world's most successful digital media companies" based on 2011 digital ad revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DEX One</span> American yellow pages and marketing company

Dex One Corporation was an American marketing company providing online, mobile and print search marketing via their DexKnows.com website, print yellow pages directories and pay-per-click ad networks in the U.S.

In Internet marketing, search advertising is a method of placing online advertisements on web pages that show results from search engine queries. Through the same search-engine advertising services, ads can also be placed on Web pages with other published content.

GenieKnows Inc. was a privately owned vertical search engine company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was started by Rami Hamodah who also started SwiftlyLabs.com and Salesboom.com. Like many internet search engines, its revenue model centers on an online advertising platform and B2B transactions. It focuses on a set of search markets, or verticals, including health search, video games search, and local business directory search.

Valley Yellow Pages is owned by AGI Publishing, Inc., and is an independent Yellow Pages directory publisher serving 45 markets in Northern and Central California. An independent Yellow Pages publisher is a company that publishes Yellow Pages directories as alternatives to the local phone companies. The independent directories include similar headings and advertisements, and are distributed to local households and businesses in the market areas. Advertisements are sold to local businesses as an alternative choice to the traditional phone companies. This helps to keep local market Yellow Pages advertising costs down.

YellowPagesDirectory.com, is a national online telephone number and street address directory, containing Yellow Pages and White Pages throughout the United States. Formerly known as YellowPagesGoesGreen.org, YellowPagesDirectory.com is owned and operated by Yellow Pages Directory Inc., which is headquartered in Manhattan, NY. The website was originally launched in 2010 by a private owner and was soon acquired by Yellow Pages Directory Inc. In addition to telephone and street address listings, the website also has informational blog articles, in addition to being outspoken advocates of opting-out of traditional print telephone directory home delivery.

References


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.