Phonebooks are a waste of paper

I just got my new copy of Dex and it went right into the recycle bin. What a waste of money charging advertisers (I'm pretty sure all the yellow page directories are paid for by ads), chopping down a few thousand trees and paying some guy a lot of salary and gas money to drive round the entire town delivering them. Internet usage is fairly prevalent these days so it seems that its about time for phone books to become an opt-in service. Print them for the people who want them.

What's really sad is that the French worked this out many years ago by giving people a free 'online' terminal to access Minitel in exchange for not getting the white pages.

They didn't even bother sending me the small phone book which at least has the advantage of fitting nicely in my car. Yes I know I contradicted myself there but while I am pervasively online at home I'm so far resisting the urge to be online the rest of the time by paying an addition $30 a month on my phone. Bad geek!

 

Published 14 July 2008 08:29 AM by zman
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Comments

# KenC said on 14 July, 2008 03:12 PM

While you may not like the book, they did NOT chop down trees to make it -- more here:  www.yptalk.com/archive.cfm

By the way the French system eliminated nothing.  They still print Yellow Pages because people continue to use them.  In the US, 14 billion times last year.

# zman said on 15 September, 2008 02:55 PM

I don't see where I suggested getting rid of them. I suggested that the companies that print them only send them to people who want them. You are charging advertisers based on possible 'X million' customers when Y million of those (where Y < X) just throw then in the rubbish.

The French system quite clearly reduced the need for phone books. I'm sure there are plenty of french people who use them though... emphasis on REDUCED and WHITE PAGES

Nice that you touch on the trees - sure you use some recycled paper but its not 100% so I'm guessing that you produce those wood chips using magic beans. Oh BTW, I'm well aware that trees are grown as a crop these days. It still uses resources to grow them even if they are not using old wood forests.

Lets address the gas you use delivering them instead - you seemed to have avoided that point.

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