If you only read one of my newsletters this year, READ THIS ONE!
Exciting things are happening that will change how small, local businesses benefit from the web. Until recently, using a search engine to find a local plumber was not very useful. The Yellow Pages were a more effective tool. Now local search is making Yellow Pages obsolete. As a result, small to midsize advertising agencies and design firms will have to reconsider the importance of the web, both for themselves and for their smallest clients!
In March of 2005, I attended the Search Engine Strategies New York conference. I came away with pages and pages of notes and months worth of ideas to work on here at Newfangled. Among all of this information, one thing in particular will affect small to mid-size advertising agencies and design firms the most. Local search is replacing the Yellow Pages as the preferred way to find local businesses and services.
Let's do a quick demo together
If you're reading this newsletter, you must have a browser open. Before we proceed, I want to show you something neat. Click this link to go to maps.google.com. Before I make my main point, go ahead and play with it a bit. It's VERY cool! It is so much better than MapQuest. You can pan in real-time and zoom in to any level you want. No more clicking to move right or left, no more waiting for the screen to redraw. If you zoom in far enough, you'll see that the street names display right inside the streets...no more trying to figure out which street label is meant for which street. Okay, that's enough fun for now.
Next, I want you to zoom to where your office is located. Maybe display the map so that your entire town fills the map. Now, in the search bar type in "pizza" and hit enter.
How do you like that? Little balloons pointing to every spot on the map where there's a pizza place near you. You've got to be pretty impressed...I know I was (of course, I am easily amused). I'm sure you'll want to play around with this more; for example, you might want to type in "graphic design" or "advertising agency" and see what shows up, but allow me to move on to my main point first.
Another important way that online local search exceeds the usefulness of the Yellow Pages is that you don't have to know the right category in order to find a vendor; just type in the product or service you are looking for and voilà!...a list of providers appears. For example, you don't have to type in "printers" or "printing" to find a place to have wedding invitations made. Just type in "wedding invitations" and it will show you where you can get them.
Say goodbye to your printed Yellow Pages!
I guess you can use those hefty yellow tree-killers as stepping stools or doorstops. I know I won't be opening them to find a bike repair shop or music school anymore. Yellow Pages is intensely aware of how local search is going to change their world; just go to www.localsearchguide.org and you'll see how much they are paying attention to this phenomenon. Right now Google is in talks with SuperPages to cooperate in this regard. I predict some significant partnerships or even mergers in the not-too-distant future.
You're on to something about "Say Good-bye to the Yellow Pages"
Saw your posting linked from one of the yellow page blogs called, appropriately: "Yellow Pages the Dinosaur"
http://www.yellowdinosaur.net
Consumers can “opt out” of receiving telephone books at www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. They will contact the publishers and inform them to stop delivering books. This is a free service for consumers. www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is working with state and local governments on ordinances concerning the delivery of unsolicited telephone books. www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is not against the telephone books but against the delivery of 4 to 5 pounds of paper on people’s door step 5 to 6 times per
I think gone are the days people use the yellow pages to do their searching. With Google, Yahoo and Bing, there are more than enough venues for people to find the real stuffs that they are looking for.
I think online yellow pages is still the yellow pages, so is not correct if we say good bye to the yellow pages. :-)
In today's life, i think search engine is more popular for people to search something rather than yellow pages. :-)
Until now i prefer yellow pages better than search engine. It is importance for small and medium business.
Yes the idea is brilliant through this they want to convert online research into offline sales. Very good, thank you for the post.
If companies put online ads they definitely need a website to provide a follow up to their ads. Internet has made the whole world a local market and businesses and companies which do not have a website lose a huge customer base and they are likely to face failure in future.