Yellow pages

Definition

Yellow pages are List or a directory that contains contact information of related organizations or persons.

Description

Yellow Pages derive their name from a directory which was printed in yellow papers and produced by telephone companies. Nowadays, electronic yellow pages has taken the place of traditional printed yellow pages. Electronic ones can be easily accessed and maintained.

Yellow pages are a tool for Knowledge Management which helps to solve "know who" in an organization. Actually, yellow pages contain contact information of related organizations or persons. The organizations could be customers, suppliers, partners or even competitors which are related to main businesses of the organization. The persons could be experts inside the organization or contacts outside the organization.

Originally, there were only businesses categories, company names and telephone numbers listed in traditional yellow pages. With the development of network technology, yellow pages has been changed a lot as well. Telephone number is only a typical kind of contact information. E-mail adderesses, mobile phone numbers and instant message accounts may appear in an electronic yellow pages which can be accessed by means of intranet of an organization. Besides, each of employees in the organization may be able to maintain their own contact information and expertise in the electronic yeallow pages. Users can easily find someone who can help to solve problems in a certain area by searching key words.

Yellow pages are also referred to as skills, experts or expertise directories.