This week I was visiting a certain Redmond-Washington based software company which, except for the title of this blog posting, shall remain nameless. While waiting in the lobby of one of the numerous and generally indistinguishable buildings on campus I was struck that there were no computer terminals. However, on one table in the corner there was (cue the music) . . . a yellow pages book.
Curious about its presence, I asked the woman seating behind the massive reception desk, "Why do you have this here?" "Oh people use it all the time," she said. "Really," I replied, "for what?" "For lots of things," she responded and proceeded to list six or seven different local business categories.
We spoke more and she told me that Microsoft had removed the terminals from some of the lobbies. There may or may not be a direct relationship between the absence of computers in the lobby and the usage of the yellow pages, but my sense is no. It's somewhat ironic that even in the most high-powered corners of the computer and Internet world, the yellow pages is still seen at least by some as a desirable and reliable source of local business information.
Screenwerk 
June 23, 2006 at 2:33 am
OK— I am clearly completely wrong that the Yellow Pages business is dead. If you want to advertise for car services to the Microsoft lobby visitors, this seems to be possibly the best way to get access to them. Having been in that lobby(I think) I can also say there is no wi-fi and pretty bad cell reception.
Maybe Microsoft feels sorry for a fellow extortionist industry and is just trying to help the Yellow Pages guys out.
June 23, 2006 at 2:34 am
Sorry, I left the smilely face out of my post. I certainly don’t actually think Microsoft is extortionist….or the Yellow Pages…well mostly I don’t think that.
June 23, 2006 at 3:02 pm
and the book was from …?
June 23, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Dex probably . . . but, alas, I didn’t look closely.