A story about an index called Yellow Pages

Although you might find me “tech geek”, but I’m considering myself as a lucky generation. Being born in late 70's has made me understand the extreme evolution of technology.

Image credit: http://www.berpendidikan.com/2015/05/panduan-cara-mencari-nomor-telepon-dengan-cepat-di-buku-telepon.html?m=1

Remembering the old days when a phone was something that you left at home. People would stopped and looked at you as a crazy man if you carry one.

Remember the old ‘internet’ days when Google was a company not a verb.

Remembering the time that I had to dial “100" to make a long distance call.

Remembering the old days of “the Yellow Pages”, a yellow pillowing thick book that sits always near the phone. My parents still put it near their “land-line phone” (a new name for the house phone since ‘they’ invented mobile phone. On those good old days, instead of typing on a screen (or mobile phone), we look phone numbers by opening that book and start reading.

I was told by my father that the Yellow Pages book is a book containing of people and businesses that are registered in the phone company.

“So this book as you see has the white and yellow page sections. People start to call it ‘Yellow Pages’ simply because the yellow section is thicker than the white”, he said.

He continued,”The white pages contain the private phone owners and the yellow pages store businesses (stores, factories, car dealers etc”).

Car dealers pages has become my favorite ever since. :)

I asked him, “how do people and businesses got listed in the book”. He gave a long answer as I recall.

That day, I knew that every private phone owners were listed because they pay the bills, and the businesses were listed because they pay the bills AND also pay some money to place their advertisement on the book.

Also that day, the first time I hear the word “Index” as my father told me. The place where people got listed.

“So people or business are not exist until they are listed in this INDEX book”, he adds.

In short closing:

• On those days, we use our pointer finger more than our thumb, as you do these days.
• Index is a list, no more, no less. People have to pay (one way or another) to be listed in index.
• My father had explained to me the concept of an index years before I knew about Google and Scopus.

:)

So boys and girls have a nice weekend …