How Google Defeated the Yellow Pages

Once upon a time, there was a big fat book of yellow. It was heavy, was full of information and was found everywhere - In little phone booths, on large office desks, on coffee tables in cozy corners and even in library bookshelves. Whenever people had a question, they turned to the yellow pages and found their answer. When there was a leaky faucet, the Yellow Pages found you the closest plumber. When your cafeteria ran out of food, the Yellow Pages guided you to the nearest delicious catering unit. When there was a roach attack, the Yellow Pages summoned the most powerful exterminator around. All was well and everything was smooth sailing, until…a curiously addictive phenomenon called the ‘Internet’ happened.

Suddenly, people were sitting in front of little white boxes, typing and clicking away. They were hungry for more information and wanted it quick. A blinking cursor, a wide text box and the return key was all it took to find the most accurate information possible, in the matter of two seconds. Search Engines had transformed the way peopled searched for information. The fingers stopped walking and began clicking away.

The big fat book of yellow had also transformed overnight, from a comprehensive source of information to a plaything, a doorstopper, a paperweight, a muscle builder and a fly swatter. Its days of glory were behind it and it retired happily, serving as a faithful handyman with a ton of happy memories. And it lived…ever after.

Enter Google.com. A big, bold, simple and extremely effective search engine that had revolutionized the way we gather information. It is quick, returns relevant results and also helps you advertise on its interface at a very cost-effective price. From local search results to national and global services, you can find it all in here at the click of a button. The paper version of Yellow Pages was obsolete, but its e-version was in the nascent stages. Yellowpages.com also offered quick results, had advertising, listed classifieds and returned global as well as local results. Then why did Google have a 31% market share over Yellow Pages’ 19%? (Source: http://www.goldcoastlogin.com.au/Search-Engine-Optimisation/YellowPages-vs-SearchEngines.htm)

Here’s why. Google has an amazing advertising platform called AdWords. With AdWords, all you need to do is create a login account on their website, set up a campaign, enter payment details and voila! You can see the results live in a few hours. AdWords is an extremely intuitive and versatile tool, you can make changes to the campaign while its live and all the changes that you make are effective immediately.

On the other hand, to have an ad in the yellow Pages, you must first speak to client service representative, send in your ad and then wait for two long weeks for it to become active. If you need to make any changes, you will be required to email or call in and request them to make changes for you.

When quizzed, people in Melbourne said that 92.86% use Google.com as opposed to 7.14% that use Yellow Pages. 100% responded that they use Google every day! (Source: http://www.melbourneseoservices.com/google-vs-yellow-pages/)

Google, the behemoth of search, is simply a search engine that people trust and turn to when in doubt; over yellow, it is the clear winner in making people mellow. And on that note, we conclude this story that travels through the ages, and set our sights on the future, where things get faster, stronger and ahem….even more polychromatic.