phonebook

i actually didn´t want to write something about it.
i can hear already the comments from 2 guys here.

but i just received the mail from dean jones with the attached ASX news and the beer files article.
and it sounds pretty good.


GOODBYE YELLOW PAGES, PHONEBOOK ONLINE HAS ARRIVED
Thursday, 26 May 2005
It had to happen sooner or later but the dominance of the Yellow Pages brand in the
business directories market is under threat in the wake of the online search engine
explosion. Throwing out an early challenge to Telstra's long standing business directory is a
new online site called Phonebook located at www.phonebook.com.au. Others are sure to
follow.
Phonebook is the brainchild of Ansearch buddies Dean Jones (CEO) and Damian London
(CTO), who have proven to be very adept at registering domain names, as the name
Phonebook attests.

***While Ansearch, owned by listed company Optum Ltd (ASX:OPM), has
yet to convince the market that its general search engine is a flyer***
the new phone directory
product is interesting to say the least.
Telstra's directories division, Sensis, has not really been particularly innovative in taking
Yellow Pages to the web, despite having had years to come up with a decent product. The
online directory is still clunky to use, unlike the latest search engines, and does not add
much, if any, value to the hardcopy version – except you don't have make space in your
home each year for two ridiculously oversized paper back books.
Telstra's failure to translate its print directories dominance into the online space, has left the
door open for search engine companies, which seem to understand what web consumers
want. Google, for example, understood that consumers wanted a "keep it simple stupid"
search product that returned a plethora of reasonably well-ordered results as rapidly as
possible.
Phonebook attempts to use the Google approach with a simple and clean interface and
easy searching mechanisms. A test drive of the site, which allows you to search by
keywords, products and services, as well as business names, in much the same way as
you would use a standard search engine, came up trumps.
Finding bricklayers in the Bondi area, or businesses associated with African culture in
Melbourne, both produced the goods. It seems that Bondi bricklayers are slightly rarer on
the Yellow Pages site, which lists just two businesses, than on Phonebook, which lists
three businesses. However, when searching for all things African in Melbourne, by simply
typing in the word "African", Yellow Pages treated us to two entries – a South African coin
dealer and a single restaurant with African cuisine. In contrast, Phonebook turned up 24
good results, including an African art gallery, two African restaurants, an African resource
centre, an African drums and dance workshop, a couple of African travel agents, a few
African arts and crafts businesses, some specialist South African food businesses and
even an African hair stylist. We also compared the two sites for a range of other trades and
professions, such as doctors, dentists, vets, plumbers and electricians in a single area of
Melbourne. In every case, Phonebook turned up considerably more entries and, unlike
Yellow Pages, each entry on Phonebook was accompanied by map detailing the location.
The incredible point of all this is that Yellow Pages, with all of its history, branding and the
resources of Telstra's Sensis behind it, is not able to match the search product of a tiny
newcomer, such as Phonebook, which operates on a shoestring. If ever there was proof that
the web has destroyed the barriers to entry for the dissemination of information then this is
it. Like most legacy print information businesses, Yellow Pages has now entered the crunch
period where consumers have become aware that its product does not meet their needs in
the online space and an increasing number of households don't bother to remove the shrink
wrap from their unwanted phone books. Now innovative new competitors like Phonebook
have started to arrive on the scene. Unless Sensis can come up with a snappy new
business directories search product within the next couple of months, then the fingers of
consumers will do their walking elsewhere.