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Yellow pages? Now, it's your choice

    by Sandy Bauers
    Published 

Phone directories certainly have their uses. Bumper seats for your kids, for instance. Door stoppers. And, oh yeah, you can look up phone numbers in them, too.

Except that, increasingly, many people are going online or using their voluminous "contacts" or otherwise finding numbers electronically. So, as I wrote earlier this year,  a movement has arisen to cut back on phone directory distribution.

At the time, the Yellow Pages industry was promising a new, improved site where people could  "manage" the directories they wanted to get. Presumably, most people would want to opt out of one or more -- yes, some locales have several companies delivering yellow page-like directories. But you could also choose to get more directories. Just in case you run out of bumper seats or doorstoppers. (Just kidding.)

Now, the website has been launched. It's www.yellowpagesoptout.com

Developed by the Yellow Pages Association and the Association of Directory Publishers, it gives consumers a single location to select which phone directories they receive, or to stop directory delivery altogether.

Among its offerings, the industry points to:

·A simple mechanism allowing consumers to stop the delivery of one, several, or all directories to their homes directly from the site.

·Images of directory front covers and information on scheduled deliveries, making it easy for consumers to identify which directories to include in their opt-out request.

·Email confirmation of participants' selections

The organizations cite research showing that approximately 75 percent of U.S. adults use print Yellow Pages to find local businesses every year and that the sales return on the investment for local display directory advertising is $15 for every $1 spent.

The books themselves have been getting greener -- incorporating more recycled content. And, of course, they're recyclable themselves, although if you weren't going to use it in the first place, that point certainly has less oomph.

So if you have issues with the issue of phone books coming to your home, here's your answer.