Google Pressures Yellow Page Sector
November 4, 2008
When I was in France, the hotel Internet connection failed. There was no paper book of business listings. The print directories–hereinafter called yellow pages–are no longer available at my hotel. In Harrods Creek, I get a number of weird yellow page publications. I receive a listing of businesses in the east end of Louisville, but I don’t look at it. I think I have a listing of minority owned businesses as well. I also recall seeing a silver yellow pages. The idea for that directory was that I could find businesses that wanted to work with people my age.
My newsreader delivered to me a story which if true spells trouble for anyone in the yellow pages business not working with Google. I may be misreading this news story in the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) here, so you can double check me. “Sensis Concedes Defeat to Google” by Asher Moses is a story that told me Google nosed into the yellow page business, disrupted it, and ended up with a deal that Sensis (an Australian directory publisher owned by the big telco Telstra) had to take or run out of oxygen.
Mr. Moses wrote:
Telstra’s Sensis has given up on competing with Google in online search and mapping, announcing today it would provide its Yellow business listings to Google Maps and abandon its own search engine for one powered by Google. From the first quarter of next year, all of Yellow’s business listings – the most comprehensive directory in Australia – will be stored in Google Maps.
Will Google have the same success in North America? In my new Google and Publishing monograph for Infonortics, I explain how Google is building its own directory of businesses and providing free coupons to help the merchants get traffic. Years ago I worked on the USWest Yellow Pages’ project. One fact I recall was that a surprising number of yellow page advertisers don’t like the yellow pages.
In my experience, when there is a potent free service that is better than the existing service, the better service will disrupt existing business processes and then supplant them. So, if Google squeezed Sensis’ owner to get its way, Google will probably find the same pattern repeating itself in other markets. In short, the GOOG will become the yellow page champion. It’s just a matter of time. Regulators have a tough time understanding what Google does or why any single action is a problem. Bananas are a monoculture I think. That’s no problem, but there is just one type of banana. I have a list of other business sectors at risk for a Sensis type play by the GOOG. No one seems to care. The Google is just so darn fun.
Stephen Arnold, November 4, 2008
Comments
4 Responses to “Google Pressures Yellow Page Sector”
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I fail to see the need for ANY local directories made of paper. Last week I needed to find a cleaning person for my home. I went to Google and put in “house cleaning UK” and, within around 12 seconds, had homed in on two candidates in my local area.
How much more local can requirements get than this? And how much quicker can a search be than this?
Harry Collier,
I agree. Hotels may wish to avail themselves of tourist oriented fliers. Added geese such as this American, cannot navigate without some guidance. Absent an affable and informed Parisian guide, a Where or placard in the hotel lobby can be useful when the connection to the cloud fails. A night attendant fluent in a Croatian dialect and minimal French can be a challenge to a Kentuckian able to speak southern English.
Stephen Arnold, November 4, 2008
Hi – read your article with interest. I’d encourage you to read Sensis’ response to the Sydney Mornig Herald piece on our corporate blog – Speaking Sensis
Steve,
Thanks for writing. I in a country with no vowels in its name. Feel free to post a short summary of the Sydney info in the comments section to this Web log. The author of this Web log is an addled goose, so giving him assignments is often an understandably parental act but sometimes inappropriate for a fowl. When dealing with a silly goose, I adopt the policy ‘if you want something done, do it yourself.’
Stephen Arnold, November 5, 2008