Local phone books are still hefty, but the newest Yellow Pages from Verizon have lost some girth.
The Verizon directories will no longer feature an index of categories, but company officials are betting that most users won't notice. After talking with customers, Verizon decided that the tabbed index at the front of the book, which listed and cross-referenced the business categories, was redundant, company spokesman Bob Elek said.
"A lot of customers didn't even know it was there," Elek said. "Most of them just go right to what they're looking for in the book."
Many other directory producers, such as BellSouth and Yellow Book USA, do without indexes in at least some markets. The newly released Pinellas County directory is one of the first to reflect the nationwide Verizon change. By next year, all Verizon directory users will have to settle for letting their fingers do the walking through the headers.
