Dex Knows… My Recycle Bin
November 2, 2009 by Ed Reese
Monday is garbage day. As I was taking out our recycling this evening I looked down and saw the phone book in our recycle bin. I didn’t put it there. My wife did. That’s what really struck me. As a local search guy, I get nearly all of my information online. But I’m supposed to find it online. I would’ve thought my wife would’ve wanted to have it around just in case she needed it. Nope. Has the general public finally outgrown their need for it? I’m trying to find an impartial survey to find out how many real people still use the dang thing, but so far most surveys seem to be pretty biased one way or the other. If you know of any, please let me know.
Do you throw it away? Do you eagerly await its arrival each Fall? Do you keep it around just in case you need to organize a game of bridge with your grandparent’s friends? Does it help you get things off of high shelves? I’m curious.
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The other day at work I was looking for a phone number. I check two places in the yellow pages, being unsure exactly how the business was listed. Unfortunately, I did not find the listing in either spot. Muttering a few choice words under my breath, I spun left to my computer, brought up Google, and typed in the business name. Lo and behold, I had the number within 15 seconds of the time I started typing. Now THAT my friend, is an epiphany, especially considering that my own yellow page business budget is somewhere north of $50K.
Yeah, I’d call that an epiphany as well. One thing that I should’ve pointed out in the post is that I’m not against the phone book (Dex or any other). It’s just something that I don’t personally use. I find it an incredible waste that it’s sent out to the masses whether they want it or not. I think an opt-in plan would be the responsible thing for them to do moving forward. I have several clients that advertise heavily in the physical phone book and get a great return on their investment. But they track everything! If it works, it works. Simple as that. They are actively engaging in local search as well, mind you. Right now they’re hedging their bets. But as soon as it no longer pays off, they’ll be out, too.