Technology will advance so far for local advertising that when voice and data truly combine on mobile phones, the usage of venerable yellow page directories to find businesses will be near zero for anyone under 50.
Bill Gates Predicts End Of Yellow Pages
That might be news to publishers who drop hefty books full of business listings at doorsteps all over the country each year. Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates, speaking at the company’s Strategic Advertising Summit, told attendees the age of the print directory has been numbered.
During his address, which took place with corporate VP and chief media officer Joanne Bradford on stage, Gates gave the example of calling for movie listings as an example of how information delivery could be better when voice/screen interaction improves.
When this happens, it should have implications in the local advertising market, Bradford observed. After that, the big change will come to the yellow page market. Gates explained to the audience:
Well, the Yellow Pages are going to be used less and less. We should be able, when you go to the service that’s going to take our technology and the Tellme technology that we acquired, when you say something like plumber, the presentation you’ll get will be far better than what you get in the Yellow Pages. After all, we know your location, and so we can cluster around that. We can take the information and show you the names, and then you can expand the information easily. So, yes, I think that these things always take time, but Yellow Page usage amongst people in their, say, below 50, will drop to zero, near zero over the next five years.
The ability to find local listings on mobile devices will have to become nearly as simple as flipping through a book. Once someone like Microsoft accomplishes that, more local businesses should embrace local online advertising.
Given Microsoft’s colorful history with regards to competitors, we have to wonder if the company thinks they have to win the mobile operating system market to succeed in local search. Microsoft may have to play nice with global handset leader Nokia to gain critical mass on the mobile platform.
With Google, AOL, Yahoo, and Ask all in the mix on mobiles, no one is going to just let Microsoft walk off with all the local ad goodies.
