AT&T's YELLOWPAGES.COM Ups the Ante on Local Business Search With New User-Centered Site Launch


Redesigned Site From Most-Preferred Internet Yellow Pages Improves Local Business Search Experience for Consumers, Bolsters Value to Advertisers

PASADENA, Calif., July 16 -- YELLOWPAGES.COM (http://www.yellowpages.com/), a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), today announced the launch of its new consumer Web site that focuses on an advanced visual design and consumer experience that further adds value to its hundreds of thousands of advertisers. Guided by extensive consumer research, the new design adopts a three-column format with enhanced access to consumer tools, new neighborhood refinement features, enhanced business listing layout and new right-column ad content placement.

The new site is designed to further optimize the user experience at a time when traffic to YELLOWPAGES.COM and sales lead generation for its advertisers are surging. From May 2006 to May 2007, the site saw a 78 percent increase in unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix.* Nearly three out of four (74 percent) of consumers surveyed who performed a search on YELLOWPAGES.COM contacted a merchant, according to a May 2007 study conducted by Morpace Market Research and Consulting. The same study found that 55 percent of YELLOWPAGES.COM users made purchases, with an average spend of $217 - the highest average spend of all Internet Yellow Pages (IYP).

"To fuel our momentum, we have been focused on continuously enhancing our Web and mobile platforms," said Charles Stubbs, chief executive officer of YELLOWPAGES.COM. "The enhancements we're announcing today were driven by extensive consumer research and we're confident they will deliver a compelling user experience."

Stubbs also said that providing a robust consumer experience and fostering a loyal user base is key to the value proposition that YELLOWPAGES.COM offers its advertisers.

"Leading consumer products supported by an award-winning national ad campaign is a formula that is reaping dividends for our company and advertisers," said Stubbs. "We saw the results of this approach in an April 2007 study from Hall and Partners that shows more small and medium businesses claim to advertise on YELLOWPAGES.COM than any other search site."

The new YELLOWPAGES.COM site was built from the ground up and is a precursor for additional elements on the company's product road map. The new platform was developed using the advanced "Ruby on Rails" development language rather than traditional Java code. Already the cornerstone of the YELLOWPAGES.COM Network, which is ranked the No. 34 Web property in the United States,** the new site is believed to be one of the largest production Web sites coded on Ruby.

"Developing in Ruby places YELLOWPAGES.COM on the forefront of development environments and puts the site in a position for rapid development and the fostering of a stimulating work environment for our growing development team," said Brad Mohs, chief technology officer for YELLOWPAGES.COM

Some elements of the redesigned YELLOWPAGES.COM site include:

o The home page, which utilizes an intentionally tactile and branded
visual design, spotlights the primary search box and provides easy
access to other search options, such as distance.
o New tabbed navigation gives prominence to the complementary features of
People Search and Maps & Directions, which feature YELLOWPAGES.COM's
award-winning mapping implementation.
o Local searches can now be further narrowed to specific neighborhoods
within a search area by clicking on the list of neighborhoods provided
in the left column on the page.
o New "hyper-local" search logic identifies categories of businesses that
consumers are likely to travel to (for example, dry cleaners) versus
businesses that will go to them (for example, plumbers) and returns
search results accordingly. This means that when consumers search for
businesses they are likely to visit, matches within the ZIP codes they
provide are ranked first in the results, while other businesses serving
the area are featured in a new column on the right.
o Searches for businesses by name also offer value-added content for
similar businesses in the new column on the right.
o Businesses' More Information pages have been redesigned to highlight
information frequently used by consumers and are organized by type of
information, such as Maps & Directions and User Reviews. This
value-added feature can be accessed by clicking on a business name or
other links and allows businesses to provide more detailed information
about services, hours and even payment options, which research
indicates is a primary consumer need. Because these pages are also
indexed by search engines, the more content businesses provide, the
better their ranking on search engines.
o The User Reviews feature and User Registration process have been
streamlined to further support the growing demand for personalization
and user-generated content.
o YELLOWPAGES.COM's City Guides are reintroduced as Local Yellow Pages
that provide more local content for select communities and can serve as
a local start or landing page that delivers even more local flavor.

Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, was recently briefed on the new YELLOWPAGES.COM and remarked on the enhanced site design, new consumer experience and the important step the new site was to AT&T's position in local search.

"Given its reach, brand equity and quickly evolving user experience, YELLOWPAGES.COM is becoming a formidable competitor in local search," said Sterling. "The new site features an enhanced user experience with improved refinements and navigation, including by ZIP and neighborhood. Among the other upgrades, mapping and personalization features are now much easier to use."

The new site design and functionality bolster the company's record of steadily rolling out site enhancements and cross-platform search capabilities since its launch as a comprehensive local business search platform in late 2005, which has helped drive rising brand preference for YELLOWPAGES.COM. A recent usage and awareness study conducted in May 2007 by Morpace Market Research and Consulting showed that YELLOWPAGES.COM was by far the most preferred IYP site nationwide, and that more than 90 percent of consumers who visited YELLOWPAGES.COM would recommend the site to a friend or family member - the highest recommendation percentage among peer IYP sites.

"This new YELLOWPAGES.COM site takes what is already the most preferred Internet Yellow Pages to the next level and is the foundation for even more advancements to come -- both on the Web and across platforms, including wireless and even TV," said Janice Rohn, YELLOWPAGES.COM's new vice president of consumer experience

AT&T's YELLOWPAGES.COM Web site and mobile offerings complement the AT&T Real Yellow Pages print directory, published throughout 22 states, as well as AT&T's directory assistance offerings, including 411 and 1-800-YellowPages, to provide an unsurpassed suite of local search solutions.

* comScore Media Metrix January 2006 vs. April 2007 for the
www.yellowpages.com/ URL

** The unique visitor number and ranking for the YELLOWPAGES.COM
Nationwide Network (Custom Entity) includes unduplicated visitors for
the following sites: YELLOWPAGES.COM, AOL Yellow Pages, Switchboard,
Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! Yellow Pages and AnyWho.

Unique user growth compares March 2006 unique visitors against March
2007 based on comScore Media Metrix.

Note: This AT&T release and other news announcements are available as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss.

About YELLOWPAGES.COM
YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC is a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. Formed in late 2004, the company operates a leading IYP and local search site, YELLOWPAGES.COM. The YELLOWPAGES.COM Nationwide Network provides exposure to up to 35 million monthly unique visitors (comScore Media Metrix, June 2007).

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at www.att.com/.

Website: www.att.com
http://www.yellowpages.com

Source: AT&T Inc.; YELLOWPAGES.COM

CONTACT: Ed Patterson of YELLOWPAGES.COM, +1-404-213-3106,
epatterson@yellowpages.com, or Heather Buffington of AT&T Inc.,
+1-314-982-0291, hbuffington@attnews.us

All Topics