Ahead of its time? Verizon puts email addresses on hold in listings
The New York Times story (registration required) on Verizon's decision to stop allowing you to add your email address to your listing in the online and print phone directory. I don't think it was an issue of being ahead of its time. It is an issue of 1) lack of marketing; and 2) fear of being spammed on our email addresses in addition to our phones!
The service was introduced in New York two years ago. The company intended to roll it out across its territory but got waylaid by "regulatory issues and the standardization of databases," Ms. Tusing said.
Verizon did not market the e-mail listing service at all, except for a one-page ad inside its white pages, sometimes heralded by a highlight on the cover. A listing sold for $36 annually - a tiny source of revenue.
Demand was practically nil. In the Manhattan white pages, there are only 12 e-mail addresses and 85 Web addresses, Ms. Tusing said, out of 659,749 residential listings.
"We may have been ahead of our time," she said. Personalized listings will be offered again at some point, she said, but she did not know when.