White Pages | YPGG - Why Green?

Non-Profit Organization Using White Pages to Connect Homeless People with Their Families

June 7, 2019 / Chris Boyle / 0 Comments

NEW YORK - In life, there are few things more disconcerting and isolating than homelessness. Often, these people are the victims of a wide range of maladies – including job loss and mental illness – but whatever the cause for their situation, once they've embraced a life on the streets it can be quite difficult for the people who care most about them to track them down and offer a helping hand.

Reuniting a homeless person with their family can provide numerous benefits; aside from having a roof over their head, of course, it offers them a more positive outlook on life, as well as people who can advocate for them if they are experiencing any mental or physical health-related issues. File photo: Pixabay.

However, there is a new organization that is helping to track down the families of people residing at homeless shelters in an effort to help them get their lives back on track. Miracle Messages is a non-profit “reunion service” that helps people experiencing homelessness reunite with their loved ones in a positive and supportive way. Often, volunteers of this organization will visit homeless shelters and get to know some of the regular inhabitants. Sometimes these people can be difficult to communicate with, making it difficult to extrapolate any information from them that can be used to track down their families. But with proper training and a “can-do” attitude, the volunteer can take a few scraps of information – utilized in conjunction with an online White Pages directory – and cultivate very real connections to an individual's past.

Of course, a reunion may not be desired on one end or the other – or both, for that matter – but the goal of groups like Miracle Messages is to simply provide a way to open a channel of communication without mandating that a party on either end actually makes use of it.

Miracle Messages relays the story of a man named Timothy, who was living at one point recently at a homeless shelter in San Francisco known as Saint Anthony's. A volunteer took a family phone number that he had – a phone number that was actually incorrect – and used that along with whatever information Timothy could recall about his family and where he lived, and used that to discover a White Pages listing for the man's sister. The volunteer wrote a letter, and heard back from Timothy's family within a week. In less than a month, Timothy had boarded a bus set for his home back east and a reunion with his loved ones; it turns out that Timothy's family had been searching for him for quite some time, but due to whatever issues he was experiencing, they were unable to locate him. It's amazing what a little detective work – combined with a White Pages directory – can accomplish.

The United States currently has over 500,000 homeless people within its borders; all of those people have their own individual stories of how they came to their current state. But the one thing they almost all have in common is a deep sense of loneliness, which is a condition that is only exasperated by having to rely on the charity of others in order to eke out an existence on this planet. What many of these people need, more than anything else, is help getting in touch with the people that love and care for them, and thankfully there are now options out there for achieving that.

Reuniting a homeless person with their family can provide numerous benefits; aside from having a roof over their head, of course, it offers them a more positive outlook on life, as well as people who can advocate for them if they are experiencing any mental or physical health-related issues.

Miracle Messages and similar organizations are part of a growing movement to help do away with homelessness in our country, having reconnected hundreds of people with their families to date. In addition to helping individuals, this also serves practical purposes for society, as the average undomiciled person typically cost taxpayers, on average, over $35,000 a year in public assistance. In addition, most governmental aid systems place a priority on assisting families and women; someone like Timothy could have found himself lost in the system for years before getting the assistance he needed, if ever.

Of course, there are other digital avenues the volunteers can use to reunite people who have been separated from their families, aside from the White Pages; Facebook is an effective means of doing so, according to Miracle Messages. Another case in California involved a man named Jeffrey who hadn't seeing his family members in 22 years. A volunteer, after getting to know Jeffrey, recorded a video of him on their phone and posted it to Facebook; there it went viral, and within less than 30 minutes Jeffrey’s sister was tagged and soon afterwards, the family was reunited.
When it comes to helping out helping to wipe out the scourge of homelessness in our country once and for all, it doesn't take much; just a little compassion, detective work, and access to a digital phone directory or social media site. From there, it's just a matter of setting up an avenue of communication and waiting to see if the parties involved will take it.

Frontier Communications to Continue Mass Delivery of Print Yellow Pages in Upstate NY Despite Demand

May 16, 2019 / Chris Boyle / 0 Comments

NEW YORK - Frontier Communications, a publishing company that supplies print telephone directories to customers in Rochester, New York and beyond, has recently and curiously reversed a decision it made regarding curtailing the mass delivery of their Yellow Pages business listings book, instead opting to continue supplying it to residents in their area despite their fading demand and greater reliance upon digital options.

In early 2019, Frontier had approached the New York State Service Commission and asked for permission to end the mass delivery of Yellow Page directories to its customers, arguing that interest in print directories had decreased greatly in favor of reliance upon electronic directory options. Citing the fact that the vast majority of consumers simply throw the Yellow Page directories they find on their doorsteps in the trash or recycling bin, Frontier also pointed out that the creation and disposal of their directories had a detrimental impact upon the environment. Based on their pervasive arguments, Frontier was given approval to end mass delivery of their Yellow Page directories; delivery would only be made to customers who had personally requested a copy, Frontier said.

Frontier had also ended the delivery of their residential White Pages directories five years ago, a decision they have completely adhered to.
However, Frontier recently reversed themselves in regards to their Yellow Page directories, stating that they had no intentions of ending it anytime soon. This, according to reports, is possibly due to the fact that the vast amount of business advertising contained on each page generates a great deal of revenue for Frontier. With their most recent directory coming in at 900 pages, that's a lot of potential revenue that they’d be giving up.

It remains to be argued how visible those ads are, however; regardless of whether or not residents are actually having a print phone directory delivered, it is more than likely that the vast number of them that do never even crack them open once. Aside from some older segments of society, nowadays most people are far more likely to hop on their computer or whip out their smartphone if they need to find the phone number or address of a local plumber, restaurant, or retail store. But again, the aforementioned older segment of society often insists on hanging on to the way things were, and it seems that a majority of them made their voices heard. That, coupled with an advertising department that's clearly working overtime, are likely the reasons why Frontier decided to reverse their decision. But if you're one of their customers who no longer wanted to receive the book, fear not; you still have the option of opting out of delivery, either through Frontier’s website, or through any number of online alternatives....including right here, on Yellow Pages Goes Green.

However, the fact that Frontier filed to cease delivery the company sees the writing on the wall; namely, that the average consumer typically has little-to-no use for print phone directories, which have actually existed in one form or another for well over a century in the Rochester area. And as demand decreases for them, it's more likely that advertisers will abandon Frontier; it’s only a matter of time.

For the time being, Frontier is hanging on to a moneymaker for as long as they can. But in this day and age of widespread digital information – as well as an increased awareness of the environmental impact that the creation and disposal of print phone directories has – you can probably find yourself counting the seconds before Frontier does away with mass delivery of their Yellow Pages directory once and for all.

Your Personal White Page Info, and Much More, Might be Publicly Posted Online if You’re Registered to Vote

May 8, 2019 / Chris Boyle / 0 Comments

NEW YORK - Typically, your average American becomes incensed on a monthly basis every time Facebook changes their infamous privacy settings without making users aware of what they now may be sharing with the general public. But on average, this is the least of your worries, as the average user usually has more personally identifiable information out on the Internet – such as social media and other websites – then they might believe.

If you read the news, you'll frequently hear of various national and even worldwide companies experiencing horrifically large data breaches, with their customers’ sensitive information being potentially exposed to risk. In 2016, approximately 26 million Americans were the victims of identity theft, and one of the most typically traveled avenues for scammers and thieves to steal someone's identity is simply to do a Google search. Sometimes it is shocking what a certain term or name will return to a hard-working criminal.

However, one would expect the government to take additional strides to keep your personal information safe, as opposed to a large, soulless corporation. Unfortunately, you would probably be incorrect in assuming this to be the case. Information that would typically turn up in a white page search – in addition to much, much more – can be readily available to anyone searching the records of any American registered to vote through their Secretary of State website.

Recently, a former member of a cybersecurity firm was able to access live online voter registration systems of 40 different American states, and was able to acquire the home addresses, voter data, and race-related information of countless residents. This information typically is the very basis and starting point for anyone looking to steal your identity, and once they have this information in their clutches, it's much easier to track down anything else about you they need to know in order to start running up charges in your name. And once a thief has your information, it becomes that much easier for them to also acquire the information of your family members, exposing pretty much everyone you hold dear to this type of danger.

According to reports, North Carolina's voter registration system actually reveals the most information about the voters registered within its borders than any other state in the Union. A simple search involving a first and last name will return such information as a home address, voting status, voter registration number, voting party, ethnicity, voting record, and much more.
Likewise, Kansas’ voter registration system also makes the information of their residents who are registered to vote readily available to anyone armed simply with a name, including their personal address and a variety of information relating to their voting history.

With such a degree of vulnerability associated with being a registered voter in many states – although not every state in the country has these issues – you would think it simple to request having your information removed from any given voter registration database in order to ensure your safety. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In North Carolina, for example, a voter would need to prove that having this information publicly available would place them in physical danger by procuring a court-issued protective order.

A simple White Page search in any given state will produce a nearly endless supply of names to feed into state voter registration databases. From there, home addresses, race, ethnicity, and a number of other factors can be easily obtained, information that could be used potentially to open up fraudulent credit card accounts and fuel other devious activity.

Of course, one could argue that a lot of this information can be found in your typical white pages telephone directory as well, and that would be true. However, the one major difference is that an individual can always opt out of having a listing in a phone book or telephone directory; however, you're unable to opt out of being in a voter registration database, unless you make the decision not to ever vote at any local or national election ever again. However, removing yourself from the Democratic process of our nation seems like a costly and unnecessary decision to have to make in order to ensure that your privacy is protected.

However, some states are attempting to catch up with the times and are enacting measures in order to keep the voting data of their residents safer in this age of rampant identity theft. Some states have added additional and complicated steps that make it more difficult for individuals to obtain information on their voters, such as requiring a date of birth, social security number, or a driver's license ID number – or all of the above – before it will allow access to voter registration information.

Turlock Journal Article Calls Out Yellow Pages Decline with Seemingly Accurate Analogies

December 1, 2018 / Lee Ann Rush / 0 Comments

NEW YORK, NY - I stumbled upon an article in the Turlock Journal written by Dennis Wyatt which lays out a bunch of accurate analogies about the Yellow Pages, or as he calls it, today’s Yellow Page, a severally shrunken down version of what once was, an essential item in every American home, say, thirty years ago.

Some of the points that hit home, not only seemed accurate, but were also comical were:

In the early 1970s when delivery crews tossed the Yellow Pages onto your doorstep it sounded like they had thrown a brick.
In many households the Yellow Pages was referenced with greater frequency then the Bible.
There was a time when you actually looked forward to receiving the phone book directory.
The phone book saved you from being charged for calling directory assistance (as well as a little extra to dial the number for you so you did not need to write it down).
The White Pages is also shrinking as fewer and fewer households have landlines.
Today most people pick up the Yellow Pages on our doorsteps and walk directly to the recycling cart and drop the phone book into it.

Other interesting points were that back in these days when the phone book was a hot commodity we used to remember phone numbers so well that we still remember them 50 years later. I’d bet for most adults, they still remember their childhood home phone number. However, these days that information is easily stored in our mobile device.

Ban The Phone Books; Who Needs Them?

November 10, 2018 / Lee Ann Rush / 0 Comments

EAST NORTHPORT, NY – Do own or operate an environmentally friendly website or service? Are you pushing or advocating for a greener Earth? If so, you can support our website by making Yellow Pages Goes Green your official partner by adding a link to our environmentally friendly alternative to Yellow and White Pages directories while suggesting your users and visitors stop using traditional phone book companies and start using Yellow Pages Goes Green.

Our Yellow Pages alternative is fast, free and continually updated hosting over 27.5 million commercial business listings and over 250 million White Pages people pages. That’s a lot of information and it is changing and being updated and improved every day. Unlike print phone book which are continually being reprinted to keep the up to date, Yellow Pages Goes Green saves all this waste and is a digital only service.

Users can find all of the information they need through this single source, while helping promote the environment and helping us advocate for the discontinuation of print telephone directories. Yes and you can help by suggesting your users and visitors to cease using traditional players; those who still print paper directories and distribute them to homes and businesses who for the most part, do not even want them.

For some ideas on how you can recommend us on your website, blog, or other Internet site please click here for images and links. If you have other ideas on how you can team up with Yellow Pages Goes Green, we are always open to hearing them and you can contact us here.

Tag: White Pages (page 1 of 3)

Non-Profit Organization Using White Pages to Connect Homeless People with Their Families

Frontier Communications to Continue Mass Delivery of Print Yellow Pages in Upstate NY Despite Demand

Your Personal White Page Info, and Much More, Might be Publicly Posted Online if You’re Registered to Vote

Turlock Journal Article Calls Out Yellow Pages Decline with Seemingly Accurate Analogies

Ban The Phone Books; Who Needs Them?

Add Your Business

No More Printed Yellow Pages