Yellowpages and Whitepages are great help for finding information about companies, people, products etc. While yellowpages provide information on companies and products, whitepages provide information on people (like a telephone directory) So, if you are looking for contact details of a company in Bahrain, probably the search will start from a business directory of Bahrain.

Before the advent of Internet, printed yellowpages were about the only source of such information. These printed directories are not only expensive but tedious to use as search options are usually limited to category or company.

With the advent of Internet came hundreds of yellowpages with not only superior search facilities generally associated with computerised databases but also at almost no cost. Even after dotcom bust there exists a large number of country specific and special purpose yellowpages where access is still free.

Another feature of Internet directories is the ability to search for people (also called whitepages) as in telephone directories. This is a wonderful feature not available before Internet era where one can search for telephone directories of the world in the Net. For example, MTNL telephone directories are now available in the Net.

Tips on Better usage of Yellowpages and Whitepages

1. Prefer country-specific directories rather than general purpose ones.
2. Read the help/guide file before search, it saves time
3. Check the language - is it English ? If not, is an English version available ?
4. Some directories allow reverse search (i.e. find telephone number when you know name, as well as find name when you know telephone number). It is a very helpful feature - specially for people search
5. Many directories allow partial string matching - for example a search by 'joh*' will retrieve John, Johny, Johnson etc.) While this is great help when you do not know full name - partial string match also retrieves lot of unwanted junk. Use this feature carefully.
6. Narrowing down your search always helps. For example if you know the State or province or Category - input them in search query (provided the directory allows multiple keyword search facility).
7. Check your spelling. Upper case, lower case mix usually does not matter

Yellowpages

List of select yellowpages. Please use any search engine to cover other countries.

Australia

Telstra Australia Yellow Pages http://www.yellowpages.com.au/

Bahrain

Bahrain Internet Pages http://bahrain.middle-east-pages.com/

South Africa

Official South African yellow Pages http://www.yellowpages.co.za
Business Directory and yellow Pages for South Africa http://www.easyinfo.co.za

China

China Big - Comprehensive Business Listing for Greater China - in Chinese and English http://www.chinabig.com/en/srch/
China Pages http://www.chinapages.com/

UAE

Abu Dhabi Business Directory http://www.adcci.gov.ae/services/directory/index.html

Whitepages

List of few notable whitepages 

• WhoWhere Directory of email addresses, mostly automatically collected. Now part of Lycos http://www.whowhere.com 
• Yahoo People Search One of the most comprehensive e-mail directories. class="sidelinksmall"http://www.four11.com
• Internet Address Finder Covers more than 6.7 million email addresses (and growing). Provides reverse search (get a user name from an email address) http://www.iaf.net/frames/body/main.htm
• Bigfoot Directory of email addresses. http://www.bigfoot.com/
• Infpspace Multi-purpose directory of business, people etc. Allows reverse search. http://www.infospace.net
• Populas Calls itself the "intelligent people locator". Can locate people by more than just their name, but doesn't seem to have a large number of names yet. http://www.populus.net

Special Purpose Directories

• Inmarsat Ships Directory - Telephone numbers of ships in Inmarsat Global networks. If you are ashore and you want to contact a ship at sea, use this directory for the ship's tel, fax, telex or email address. http://www.inmarsat.org/ships/
• KOMPASS Trade Directories 1.6 million companies, 23 million key product and service references, 3.2 million executive names 744 000 trade and brand names.... http://www.kompass.com/
• Europages - European Business Directory Business Directory of Most European Countries http://www.europages.com
  

Related Links:

• Will the Buyer - Visit your web-site ???
• How to find serious buyers
• How to Communicate effectively - Part (VII) : Communications beyond E-mail
• How to Communicate effectively - Part (VI) Common mistakes in e-mail communication
• How to Communicate effectively (Part V) - Does your e-mail induce response ?
• How to Communicate effectively (Part IV) - Use Standard Vocabulary for Export Import
• How to Communicate effectively (Part III) - Requesting Quotation and few Common Mistakes
• How to Communicate effectively (Part II) - How to write an offer or request quotation
• How to Communicate effectively Part (I) - Why Communication is so vital in e-commerce ?

Source: FAIDA - Newsletter on Business Opportunties from India and Abroad Vol: 2, Issue 37 February 21' 2002

Author : Dr. Amit K. Chatterjee (Amit worked in blue-chip Indian and MNCs for 15 years in various capacities like Research and Information Analysis, Market Development, MIS, R&D Information Systems etc. before starting his e-commerce venture in 1997. The views expressed in this columns are of his own. He may be reached at amit@infobanc.com )