A few weeks ago, the Yellow Pages Association released some data related to purchase and purchase intent when using print and online Yellow Pages.

Highlights:

• 8 out of 10 Internet Yellow Pages searches were from people who said they were ready to buy, with 36 percent reporting they had made a purchase after finding local business information at an Internet Yellow Pages site, and an additional 44 percent saying they intended to make a purchase.

• 78% print Yellow Pages searches were from people who said they were ready to buy, with 39 percent reporting they had made a purchase after finding local business information in a print Yellow Pages directory, and an additional 39 percent saying they intended to make a purchase.

• 40% of those who made a purchase said they found and made that purchase from a new company after reviewing local information on an Internet Yellow Pages site. (it’s 35% for print Yellow Pages)

• ·Of searches made by people who used Internet Yellow Pages, 37 percent said they had no company name in mind when they started their search. (34% for print)

I was curious to see if age made a difference in those numbers and the Yellow Pages Association provide me these data points:

As you can see, the differences between age groups are small.

What it means: not surprised with the results. Print and online business directories have always been about intent to purchase and actual purchase. The good news is that it is still true in 2010. What I would have wanted to see was the comparison between “medium”, for example versus search engines or word of mouth, but those data points where not available. I suspect search engines would have received a lower score than Yellow Pages but I was wondering about friend recommendations: do those lead to purchase?