I don't check the mail often, but I did today. Two new phone books came, and unlike Navin R. Johnson, I am not excited about this. In the five months since we moved here we have gotten seven phonebooks. I don't mean to sound like a tree-hugger, but isn't that just a tad too many?

I haven't even used a phonebook in the last five years; it's much quicker to just search on a computer or my iPhone. I would guess that over the last year or two, people have started using phonebooks less and less. This is because of the increase in smart-phones that can search the internet easily and quickly, as well as free services like 1-800-GOOG-411.

This would obviously make it harder to sell yellow page advertising and the apparent solution is to print more phonebooks. Here is an actual transcript* from a meeting on this matter at a large telco:

N.R. Johnson, CEO: What are we gonna do about this phonebook issue?

Bill J. Fonebook, SVP Phonebook Distribution: Well, If we burry people in them, they can't reach their phone to Google the number!

Please, Large Telco, Inc., stop printing so many phonebooks. Think of the children.


*not actual transcript