The problem with worldwide reverse phone book
August 18th, 2008 
Print This Post
Filed Under General
A reverse phone book serves the purpose of making all the contact numbers in a particular area (usually in a city) available, for anybody who’d want them. The thing with the phone directory system is exactly that. The whole phone book’s concepts works, but only if you’re needs are local. An out of towner won’t be one who takes the trouble to look up a directory because his stay would be short (it being a visit and him being a visitor).
So the directory doesn’t appeal to one who is an out of towner. Even to a long time resident of the town who would need to know which numbers to call to get what, it would be rarely used for those once in a while cases and for those once in a while people, that you have to call once in a while only.
The irony of the Internet version of the phone directory is not as efficient considering that it is the Internet version. If the local (read print and hard copy) version is locally grounded, the Internet version should by all means be worldwide. But the irony is that not only is it the reverse of the local version of the phone book (you don’t look names and then corresponding details but vice versa – you look up details and then to the name that corresponds to them) but it also reverse in the context. While it is on the World Wide Web, it is barely worldwide. Most reverse phone books are only United States and some UK centric. I wonder why no one’s done that yet – make a universal phone book – a reverse phone book in this case.
Mail this postPopularity: 52% [?]
Comments
Leave a Reply