Electronic Yellow Pages are online versions of traditional printed business directories produced by telephone companies around the world.
Before the popularity of the internet, business telephone numbers in the United Kingdom could be searched by accessing a remote computer terminal by modem.
A similar system called Phonebase for published residential phone numbers was discontinued in the 1990s, being superseded by a web-based search interface.
The Yellow Pages product was the brain child of the co-owner brothers of the company, Peter and John Richards.
Among the first to place their listings on the Web was Pacific Bell's now-defunct “At Hand” online yellow pages that was officially launched on August 30, 1996.
Although it is “old hat” now, At Hand allowed an online visitor to look for a French restaurant in a given town and get an interactive map.
If the restaurant has paid for an enhanced listing, the visitor could also find out other information, such as whether it took American Express or if it served bouillabaisse.
At Hand showcased editorial content from 14 publishers, including HarperCollins, the Hearst Corporation, the New York Times Company and American Express.
Another early entrant into the then-$11 billion yellow pages industry occurred in 1997 when four Baby Bells banded together to create a co-branded Web site and initiated a $1 million marketing campaign to drive more traffic to their regional yellow pages sites.
The reason for this is that traditional yellow pages publishers, such as the phone companies, have big sales forces to approach local businesses.