‘Internet Yellow Pages’ to go to 11 million UK homes

A paper-based guide to the Internet, which promises to be the online world’s answer to the Yellow Pages, is launched this week.

The FlickDotCom directory contains listings of more than 3,500 websites, and will be delivered to the approximately 11 million UK homes with Internet access.

Research by FlickDotCom shows that UK Web users waste up to 8 million hours a week in unsuccessfully searching the Web. More than 60 per cent of Internet users have quit searching the Web after existing methods, such as using online search engines, failed to find what they were looking for.

“The problem for first-time or novice Web users is that search engines simply do not make sense of the Internet,” says Elaine King, sales and marketing director of FlickDotCom. “Our directory aims to make sense of the virtual world by going back to the real world.”

To minimise the risk of the listed websites disappearing as a result of the volatile dot-com market, three-quarters of the businesses in the directory, which will be updated annually, are “clicks and mortar” companies, with a significant “real-world” presence.

An online version of the directory, to be updated more frequently, will be launched in the autumn. FlickDotCom also plans to introduce 12 regional versions of the directory.