What's Black and White and Red All Over?

Not the white pages. I recently met with one of our SEO clients Tom Sansone from T&R alarms. He thought I might enjoy an industry (warning) correspondence from Security Infowatch and industry watchdog. They warn how regulators have begun granting telecommunications companies the go-ahead to stop mass-printing residential phone books, a musty fixture of Americans’ kitchen counters, refrigerator tops and clogging junk drawers everywhere.

In the past month alone, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania approved Verizon Communications Inc.’s request to quit distributing residential white pages. Virginia is right behind them.

Telephone companies argue that most consumers now check the Internet rather than flip through pages when they want to reach out and touch someone.

“Anybody who doesn’t have access to some kind of online way to look things up now is probably too old to be able to read the print in the white pages anyway,” joked Robert Thompson, a pop culture professor at Syracuse University. With 200 million Americans currently having internet access he makes a valid point.

Phone companies also note that eliminating residential white pages would reduce environmental impact by using less paper and ink.

Important to note that the first telephone directory was issued in February 1878 - a single page that covered 50 customers in New Haven, Connecticut. The shhet grew into a book that became virtually a household appliance, listing numbers for neighbors, friends and colleagues. It should also be noted that the first confirmed prank call was registered in March of 1878.

Please just add the phone book to the list of other fossils created by emerging technology. (Has anyone seen a pay phone booth lately) and the home landline seems to be going the way of the dodo as well.