A Review of the Yellow Pages (Canada) iPad App

Searching for a person or a place, traditionally involved opening a telephone book and searching for the item alphabetically (alternatively, for a cost, one could call 411 directory assistance). Then, one would write down the address and telephone number. If one needed to visit the person or place, would consult a street map of the area and locate them.

In the internet era, there were several search options, but it still required two steps— the search and then the locator using Google maps, etc. The iPad app is an improvement on both the traditional way and the internet way.



The Yellow Pages (Canada) iPad app thoughtfully combines these two elements by allowing one to search for a person or place and then plotting the results on a map. The upper part of the main screen has two tabs to distinguish the search between a person or a place of business. There is an additional number if one is doing a reverse-number look-up (you have the telephone number and want the address).

The middle part of the main screen has several icons representing typical businesses: hair salons, gas stations, restaurants, etc. that can be quickly searched and displayed on the map in a single step.

At the bottom, in portrait mode, are logos of businesses that sponsored the App.

Once a search is initiated, the map appears, your current location is identified by a blue pin, and the results (with an address) appear as a scrolling list on the left and also plotted on the map. You can touch the list item for more details or you can touch the icons on the map. Touching the list item takes you to a second page with the telephone number and a closer view of the map (non-scrollable) and if it's a place of business, an ad for the business and a link to their website, if any.

I would rate The Yellow Pages (Canada) app 3½ out of 4 stars. (Note: the U.S. Yellow Pages app has  slight variations in the interface, based on the screenshots.)

Usability: ½
Usefulness: 1
Looks: 1
Enjoyability: 1

I have a few suggestions for future improvement:

• have a single search box and use heuristics to decide if the search is for a person or a place or a reverse-lookup; if the search is ambiguous, display matching results for both the person and the place and distinguish the type with a different colour or icon
• in the detailed search results, make the map scrollable
• allow a person to have their website, blog, facebook address, email included in the directory listing. This is, after all, the internet era and the telephone will soon be obsolete.