Comments on: YP ‘Opt Out’ Propsal Passes Local City Council

By: kcpc

kcpc — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:16:21 +0000

Consumers can now “opt out” of receiving telephone books at http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. This organization will contact the publishers and inform them to stop delivering books. This is a free service for consumers. http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org is working with state and local governments on ordinances concerning the delivery of unsolicited telephone books. http://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 year and being told it is our responsibility to recycle something we did not ask for. If we need a book we will call. Otherwise I “opt out” from receiving it. Here are phone numbers of the publishers if you would like to call them instead: The directory publishers listed make it possible for you to stop receiving their books, but they don’t make it easy. None of the menu options includes “opting-out”. Follow the roadmap and you should get to a customer service representative who can help you.

— ATT/ Yellow Pages: 1-800-479-2977
— Verizon: 800-555-4833, press 4, then 5, then 2
— DEX: 1-877-243-8339, press 2
— Yellow Book: 1-800-929-3556, press 2

By: Eddie

Eddie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:51:26 +0000

See? ………heard from reliable sources that this is at the Washington DC level. So, could accellerate the inevidable. Or, at the pace DC moves, it may be a non-event. Whichever way, a verticalized (more condensed) version will still be around for a long time. And it’s believed that consumer households will at least Opt-in to one brand, so they have one around. Reducing the distribution of multiple brands by 5-6 fold in some metros.

By: Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:06:16 +0000

Yes, people are contradictory and hypocritical.

By: troy

troy — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:29:21 +0000

I found it somewhat amusing that people that are against yellowpages are most likely big consumer of bottled water which I find to be just a bad for the environment with the millions of plastic bottles in landfill and all over our cities.

By: Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:33:42 +0000

It’s clearly useful:

“When purchasing a product or service from a local business, which of the following would you look to for information?”

Search engines 74.1
Print yellow pages 65.1
Internet yellow pages 49.9
Print newspaper 44.4
Print white pages 32.6
Television 28.6
Direct mail 19.5
User review websites 18.3
Radio 14.9
Coupon books 10.1
Other 4.9

Source: Webvsible-Nielsen (10/07) n=2,001. Numbers exceed 100% because respondents were allowed to identify multiple answers

By: troy

troy — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:30:41 +0000

Yes, it’s hard to tell whether this is the spark that burn down an industry or will flame out after a while. My guess is that this will catch on with some cities but not all. Unlike Telemarketing which was downright annoying to everybody. Yellowpages might be annoying to some but till useful to others.