Does Anyone Really USE Yellow Pages Anymore?

I haven’t used printed Yellow Pages (or White Pages for that matter) in so many years that I forget the last time.  In fact, in a world of smart phones, iPads, ubiquitous wi-fi every waking moment, and America’s obsession with content and connection, I find it hard to imagine who still uses these antiquities.  I’m sorry to my friends at Verizon, YellowBook, or whoever else is still selling this dying media, but the need for a four-inch-thick alphabetized list of ads and numbers is past its prime.

555 million phone books are delivered in the U.S. annually. The phone book market is a competitive one, and it’s not just Yellow Pages on the doorstep anymore.  And even though each company only delivers one per year, that doesn’t preclude other carriers from coming into each market trying to look just like the same old Yellow Pages.

Is there even a “business phone book” concept out there that ISN’T yellow?

According to Earth911.com, in New York City they get as many as five phone books per year.  FIVE.

“Annually an estimated 650,000 tons of phone books are distributed to America’s 100+ million households. At an EPA estimated national recycling rate of 18%, only 117,000 tons of phone books are recycled each year, many of them on the day that they are received,” according to treehugger.com.

Luckily, we now have options.  For the last year or so the Yellow Pages Association has operated an opt-out service so that unnecessary or unwanted book simply aren’t delivered.  The site is fairly easy to navigate, and is quick and painless.  Go over to Yellow Pages Opt Out and make yourself heard!

The Yellow Pages was a valid reference book 15 years ago, but has never been the most efficient at delivering the desired data, at least without being draped in display advertising.  Now we all fire up Google Maps or one of a few dozen service applications like Yelp or Urban Spoon when we get the urge to get dinner out.  Or we fire up our favorite browsers and search engines for a quick answer.  It’s nice to know that there’s an option more “in line” with environmentally-conscious individuals who are simply tired of carrying the Yellow/White Pages from the front door stoop, around the porch, to drop the 30-pound bundle directly into the recycling.

– Scott