Is the Internet Now the Phone Book of Choice?

In days past, the phone book in your home probably sat very close to your phone and was used so much it was tattered and beaten by the time the new edition arrived the next year. Everyone who had a residential phone in their home got a phone book or two delivered to their home and that was where numbers were looked up. Most had a section in the back where you could write down numbers you used the most. Today, these books are used less and less thanks in part to the Internet.

Today, we don't have to use the phone book to store our most important numbers. Most people have any number they have used more than once stored away in their cell phone contact list. You have probably found yourself opening your phone to find a number more often than you have opened up any paper phone book. You don't even have to find the number with most phones, you just click on the name of the person or the business that you want to call and your phone does the rest. Many people don't know their best friend's phone number by heart because of this technology. They don't have to.

An even more powerful and more up to date version of all phone books can be found online. The print version in your home has your local numbers, but they are only updated once a year. The listings you can find online are updated as they change. This means finding a number that is now out of order when you use the phone book online is a rare occurrence. The white and yellow pages online are just like what you get at home, but with more updated listings and listings out of your local area all in one place.

Not only is the phone book online more convenient, it is also much faster. Think about how long it can take you to weed through the tiny print in your paper phone book as compared to how long it takes you to type in the name of a company or person online. You don't have to go to the online white and yellow pages either you can just type what you need into a search engine and those can pull up the numbers for you as well, as long as they are listed numbers. Not only that, you may even get a map to appear that tells you that you have found the right number before you dial.

The phone book in your home may always come, but it is certainly not the best way to find numbers today. There are some people that opt out of being listed online though you can still find them in your paper books. When you find businesses with the phone book online, you can see much more information than you could with your book. However, they may prove useful, so don't throw them away. You may not need to keep them close to the phone, but you may need to keep them just in case.