Invasion of The Yellow Pages

Rival directories vie to take your fingers for a walk

It used to be simple to find a plumber, a taxi service or just about any other business around town. Most people simply took out the Yellow Pages and let their fingers do the walking. But these days, the searching shopper must first decide which phone book is likely to have the best answer. Like the good old telephone system, the plain old Yellow Pages has changed considerably since the 1984 breakup of AT&T.; Consumers now choose from a virtual home library of competing Yellow Pages, including special editions for children, the elderly, doctors and boaters, and even multilingual versions in...

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