Bye-Bye White Pages?

[JSngry]

Don't think I like this...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101111/ap_on_re_us/us_goodbye_white_pages

[Rooster_Ties]

What's not to like?? From the article...

The directories would be available on the Internet, printed upon request or provided on CD.

Win-win all the way around, if you ask me.

Now, if we could only get the Yellow Pages to be the same way -- and only printed on demand.

[ghost of miles]

Inevitable, I think. I asked for a White Pages the other day at work and then realized, "What on earth do I need it for?" I simply looked up the number online instead. Odd as you get older how many things start falling away... pay-phones are pretty much a thing of the past now as well.

[ejp626]

I could definitely do with fewer Yellow Pages. We get at least two full city ones, plus one just for our neighborhood. There was some investigative reporter who found that, even though there is technically an opt-out form for the Yellow Pages, the contractors who drop these on doorsteps simply ignore it.

{Something got erased here.} Payphones are pretty much extinct in Chicago. I do kind of miss phone booths though.

[Neal Pomea]

What's a poor boy like Navin Johnson got to look forward to?

I like the print White Pages. Use them as much as possible. Same with a print dictionary.

I don't see the connection with extinct phone booths at all. We have information online, but you won't see print books disappear any time soon. People will lose the ability to thumb though text, like they're losing the ability to write cursive.

[BillF]

Yes, we're moving this way as well. 50% of the "white" book is now given over to large business ads and two "yellow" type books are now provided, tho' the official Yellow Pages is now in slimmed-down format. Perhaps online number searching isn't quite as in place as in the US, as my first attempt to look up my own number took me to Manchester, NH!

[JSngry]

The vanishing pay-phone is a drag too...had a flat on the way to a gig a few months ago, didn't have my cell on me, and it took forever to find someplace that would let me use their house phone.

[kh1958]

I have an iphone White Pages app. Not only does it give me your phone number, it gives directions to your house.

[JSngry]

So I guess unless I'm going to stay at home or within predictable radii thereof, a smartphone is an inevitable necessity? Not just a convenience, or a cool toy, but a g.d. prerequisite?

I really, really don't like being forced into that...

[Rooster_Ties]

I really, really don't like being forced into that...

According to the article, you can still get white pages printed on demand, so what's the problem here?

You and 400 (OK, maybe 4000) other people in Texas still want 'em -- and there's a provision for you to still get them -- and the other 25 million other Texans DON'T really need 'em. Not picking on Texas -- the same can be said of every other state.

You're not being "forced" into anything. As it stands now, hundreds of millions of people are being "forced" into getting telephone directories they don't particularly want, and don't appear to even be using much at all.

[kh1958]

So I guess unless I'm going to stay at home or within predictable radii thereof, a smartphone is an inevitable necessity? Not just a convenience, or a cool toy, but a g.d. prerequisite?

I really, really don't like being forced into that...

There's an official Sonny Rollins app too.

[JSngry]

I have an official Sonny Rollins app too - my CD player & turntable.

[BillF]

Let's not forget the time-honoured additional uses of the phone book: propping open a sash window with broken cords, stabilizing a piece of furniture with a one short leg, raising a seated small child to table level. Judging by the number of unsolicited mail order catalogues the recession is bringing to my door, these will probably still be on hand for these important jobs after the demise of the phone book.

[Neal Pomea]

I have an iphone White Pages app. Not only does it give me your phone number, it gives directions to your house.

Who wants an appetizer that can do that?

Edited November 11, 2010 by It Should be You