Verizon’s Yellow Pages is finally getting into the pay-per-click game, Wonk reports via MediaPost. The massive phone co. plans to revamp its Superpages.com website to focus on the local advertising market. Funniest quote: the Verizon guy claiming this is not in response to Yahoo/Google handing them their ass. He does have a pretty funny slap at the leader: “If you want to find out about the history of plumbing, you go to Google. But if your sink’s backed up at 2 a.m., we get you right to what you want to know.”
I dunno, but if my plumbing is backed up at midnight, something tells me turning on the computer is not first on my mind.
Actually, I’d probably find myself going to Google as a first resort on a host of household DIY emergencies. “plumbing clog problem” returns (as the fourth item) a nice page re sources of drain clogs: http://www.stemdoctor.com/clogged_drains.htm
(As a side comment, I wonder if we need a better means, in English, to represent quotation marks, or just to establish a new syntax. When I wrote, “plumbing clog problem,” above, I meant “these three words, w/o quotes, in Google.” How should I have said it, if I meant the quoted phrase?)
The Site that you mentioned about plumbing from the stem doctor is no longer around. I searched google because I had a similar problem with finding the right plumbing information in what was kind of an emergency situation, and ended up going to http://www.make-my-own-house.com/plumbing-symbols.html. Sure it helps a bit to know the plumbing symbols, but when the water is pouring out, maybe I should just grab a bucket and hit the super yellow pages. Hard to say.
It would be grammatically correct for you to have typed “‘plumbing clog problem'” if you meant the whole phrase, but many people may not pick up on that nuance.
I know when I read “plumbing clog problem,” I first assumed you meant you searched for the phrase, but grammatically you were correct, since you were quoting exactly what you entered. Interesting that despite an M.Ed. in English, I’m so brainwashed by the Web that I saw it as a straight search query. (Or I’m just easily confused.)
Guess the Web’s even gonna contribute to pushing grammar in different directions now.
P.S. “‘plumbing clog problem'” – note the single quotation marks inside double – hard to see on screen, but that’s the nuance I was referring to.
No, no – I can never find the phone book here, so the first thing I would do find a plumber would be to sit down at the computer and open the phonebook.
Mind you, the .au version of yellowpages is too advertising driven to always be useful, but one works with what one has.
First, I don’t have to turn on the computer because its always on. Second, a query for a phone number is actually faster on my computer than picking up the phone and calling directory assistance. And that’s without the benefit of decent local search capabilities. So if Verizon can make it work better and de-clunk their interface, yes, I’ll use them instead of Google to find the number of my favorite Mexican restaurant which I always forget. I haven’t used my yellow pages in over a year now.