4, 2004 SBC Communications Incorporated (now AT&T) and BellSouth announced a joint venture to acquire. The site experienced stiff competition from Big Yellow (now part of SuperPages) and SuperPages itself. 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. At Hand showcased editorial content from 14 publishers, including HarperCollins, the Hearst Corporation, the New York Times Company and American Express.Īnother 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. 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 the time, the service was competing with, a nationwide Web directory that was since absorbed by SuperPages.Īlthough 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. At Hand debuted with approximately 1.2 million merchant listings from across California. Banana Pages eventually became YPI (Yellow Pages on the Internet, Inc) which was sold to and became their Yellow Pages offering to cobrands.Īmong 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. Many RBOCS (Regional Bell Operating Companies) would follow. The Yellow Pages product was the brain child of the co-owner brothers of the company, Peter and John Richards. 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 first true online Yellow Pages, was a creation based on the independent YP publisher in Seattle, Washington called Banana Pages. The service Electronic Yellow Pages was superseded in the mid-1990s by the internet service A similar system called Phonebase for published residential phone numbers was discontinued in the 1990s, being superseded by a web-based search interface. This dialup service was available via Prestel and "BT Gold" services. 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. The initial prototype of this was superseded in 1990 with a commercial service. 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.Īn 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.īefore the popularity of the internet, business telephone numbers in the United Kingdom could be searched by accessing a remote computer terminal by modem. Typical functionalities of online yellow pages include the alphabetical listings of businesses and search functionality of the business database by name, business or location. Online telephone directories of businesses sorted by categoryĮlectronic Yellow Pages are online versions of traditional printed business directories produced by telephone companies around the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |