The new phone books are here!

@Mame,

I can't believe the first thing you all thing of is something seedy - jeepers purely innocent.

Love your new look, Mame . . . who's doing your hair now?

(Just some gentle joking there, Link . . . )

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@Linkat,

Absolutely - looking, in fact, for your post on "Married but having phone sex in hotel" or something of that nature.

Set, I'm doing it myself but you probably figgered that out.

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@boomerang,

Quote:

I wish they'd at least give us an "opt out" for receiving the printed book.

Same here

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@Linkat,

Quote:

Yes - and I've used them in hotels too.

That what my netbook and the hotel free wifi access is for along with my magic jack internet phone service.

Very nice when you are outside the country.

Never never travel without at least a netbook along and I am 61.

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@Mame,

I saved that under my aka jesusbastuard name.

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@BillRM,

I prefer not to bring any computers of any sort when taking a vacation - a bit different for business travel of course.

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@Linkat,

Quote:

prefer not to bring any computers of any sort when taking a vacation - a bit different for business travel of course.

No way would I wish to be without a computer on a vacation and cut off therefore to a large degree from my family and the world with special regards concerning my elderly mother.

In my first few visits to Cancun all the news I could get came from a few pages of the international Herald and that cut off feelings is not something I care for beside my concerns about my mother.

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@BillRM,

I could understand in regard to your mom, but for me, part of the vacation is to be disconnected.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Interesting evidence, Roswell. I have long felt that people online live in their own world and fail to recognize that they are still very much of a minority.

I think there is some truth to that. But all I know for certain is that a substantial portion of our calls from new customers come from people who say they simply used the phone book to find us (we even ask them which section of the book they found us under (because we have multiple ads in different sections of the book)).

A large portion of the population is over 50yrs old, and the older they are, the more likely they are to say they found us in the phone book.

Also, the particular type of service we offer (Small home repairs and Handyman work) lends itself to "instant gratification" type of lookups, meaning that when people have something that gets damaged they reach for the nearest quick resource, and I think for many people, that's still the phone book.

I think Internet type lookups are used more often when people have large ticket items they need done (because they require more research before purchasing).

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@rosborne979,

Interesting however at the old age of 61 I never used the phone book and my wife of similar age does not and my wife brother a ww2 person does not used the phone book.

My mother at 88 does used the book when I am not around and she is the only one in my family that seem to do so.

Dying out like the printed newspapers.

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@BillRM,

BillRM wrote:

Interesting however at the old age of 61 I never used the phone book and my wife of similar age does not and my wife brother a ww2 person does not used the phone book.

My mother at 88 does used the book when I am not around and she is the only one in my family that seem to do so.

I believe you. But you are an "Internet" person, and you might be demonstrating Setanta's point in thinking that you and your family are "the norm" at this point.

BillRM wrote:

Dying out like the printed newspapers.

I agree that phone books will eventually die out. But it's not going to be tomorrow. Phone books still work when the power is out.

Interestingly, the phone book publishers (Idearc Media) are desperately trying to drive people to their web sites. To accomplish this, they are offering huge discounts to business like mine who still take out print ads, as long as we also sign up for a spot on their web page. Their strategy is to generate as much content on their web page as possible (at the cost of profit on their physical books) to drive traffic to those sites. I'm not sure if their strategy will work, but for the moment it translates into huge savings on print ads for me, and additional exposure on their web site. It's a very interesting Internet evolution.

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Interesting rosborne! Thanks for the change of perspective.

I was just reading an article yesterday about "mini generation gaps" that said, in part:

Quote:

....But these are also technology tools that children even 10 years older did not grow up with, and I’ve begun to think that my daughter’s generation will also be utterly unlike those that preceded it.

Researchers are exploring this notion too. They theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.

“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.”

One obvious result is that younger generations are going to have some very peculiar and unique expectations about the world. My friend’s 3-year-old, for example, has become so accustomed to her father’s multitouch iPhone screen that she approaches laptops by swiping her fingers across the screen, expecting a reaction....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/weekinreview/10stone.html

I'm pretty low-tech compared to my contemporaries and I think the phone book is a huge waste of paper.

Go figure.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Interesting rosborne! Thanks for the change of perspective.

I haven't used a phone book since the mid-90's. But lots of people still do.

Believe it or not, we still have customers who don't even have an Email address. And many who have them, say they never use them. I bet 5% of our customer base claim to not even have Email addresses. And about 20% say they never use them even if they have them.

The percentages are about the same for people who don't own cell phones (5%), and for people who own them, but claim they don't use them (20%).

Our customer base is located in Southern NH, so it's a mix of 1st generation residents, 3rd or 4th generation residents and young commuters heading in/out of the Boston/Burlington grid.

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I get fewer phone books since we cut the land line a couple of years back. I have used a phone book maybe twice in the last year....at work. Normally I go online to get a number, once in awhile I pay for 411 service.

Phone books for me are like pennies....they go directly into the trash. If people don't like what I do with them they can join me in calling for eliminating them.

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1 phone book here. about 1/4 inch thick.
I use it more often than online.
online i have to wade through regional and national adverts to get to somebody local. Often the people or business i want is not listed.

I really only use online for areas i dont have a phonebook for.

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I'm on the computer all the time. Yet I prefer to look up stuff in the "real yellow pages". I think the fees for phone book ads are exorbitant and you get more bang for the buck by advertising online. I actually help small businesses get marketed online with first page Google placement. Kinda ironic, huh? [email protected]

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@Merry Andrew,

Merry Andrew wrote:

... I sure hope the phone book doesn't go the way of so many other things that I grew up with which are now obsolete.

I'm with you there, Andrew. I still find it useful for the content of the business ads, and to quickly compare ads, for example.

I hardly ever use the white pages though. Probably because I only ever call family.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

Normally I go online to get a number, once in awhile I pay for 411 service.

Google is now providing free 411 business service with the number 800-466-4411 or 800-googl-411.

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The new phone books are here!

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