White Pages and Reverse White Pages

Staying connected is the buzzword these days. Everybody is online, pinging away on the messenger, and staying connected to the computer all day long. This write-up starts off with the initial telephone directory and then talks about the advantages of online white pages and ends with the advantages of getting listed in business white pages.

A more common name given to telephone directories is 'White Pages', which basically contain the address details of residential customers. They are termed so to distinguish them from the 'Yellow Pages', which contain commercial listings. They can also be used to refer to a directory of people on the Internet.

With the advent of Internet to a level where life stops without it, online white pages have become very popular. You will find over a hundred websites on the Internet which can pull out telephone numbers of people based on a name and zip code.

You can find international contacts too. To add yourself or remove your entry from an online white page directory, you simply have to send an email to the webmaster.

When you come to think of it, online white pages have innumerable advantages over the conventional paper ones. Firstly, the online directories will be more updated when compared to the paper directory which gets published every year. Secondly, the amount of natural resources and trees that we will be saving if we do not require paper is incalculable.

Even if your city does not have an online website, you can get all the numbers printed on a CD ROM and distribute this instead of the paper directories. It will even work out cheaper.

As a matter of fact, AT&T has announced that they would stop publishing their directories in Charlotte and Raleigh (North Carolina) and would instead provide web based or CD ROM access to residential listing data.

According to a recent article in the Canadian Press, Clifton Metcalf, who is an AT&T spokesman in Charlotte, made the announcement that the company wants to try the idea in North Carolina before it could expand it elsewhere.

Clifton Metcalf also said internal research showed that customers hardly ever used the White Pages, as they were using the Internet for find basic phone listings. He concluded that if all customers in Raleigh and Charlotte were to switch to the web-based version, AT&T has estimated that it would save about two million kilograms of paper each year.

Reverse white pages provide the opposite functionality as compared to traditional white pages, in the sense that when provided a phone number, they can return the name of person along with the residential address to whom the phone is listed.

To build a successful business, it is important to build brand awareness. One means of advertisement that you can use is to get your company enlisted in the business white pages. You will be accessible to people across the country.

It will be more advantageous to you if you cater to a very specific service or product, as narrowing down on your number will become simpler. The same holds true if you are a customer and are looking for a specific vendor or service provider on the Internet.

Another important thing to note is that these days, when you need to borrow money on credit for expanding your business, creditors often check business white pages to confirm if you are legitimate. If your business is not listed, it may raise questions about the authenticity of your business and also regarding your commitment of your business.

I agree that you may be bombarded with calls from the telemarketers and this may be one of the key reasons that you have not listed your business so far, but I do believe that at the end of the day, even if you get a call from a single genuine customer, it will outweigh all the headache that the telemarketers can cause.

To conclude, online white pages are more preferred than the traditional paper directory, for the various reasons listed above. Also, if you have an upcoming business, get yourself listed immediately.