The Birth of Wolley Segap

The first Telephone Book had no numbers, just names & consisted of only one sheet of paper!

The image to the left shows the first Telephone Directory, printed just two years after Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent on his telephone in 1876.

From the records available, it would seem that the first Yellow Pages directory was published on May 15, 1886 for the Chicago Telephone Company. There is however another story that says that the first classified listings with ads were produced by the Cheyenne Wyoming Telephone Company, in 1883 on Yellow paper, because the printer had run out of White stock.

Whichever it is, the process of creating Telephone Directories & Yellow Pages have come a long way!

In 1960 the Michigan telephone book featured the cartoon character Wolley Segap ("yelloW pageS") that promoted Yellow Page ads & now Wolley Segap's ads amount to a world wide $30 Billion+ industry.

We're not quite as old as Wolley, but we've been around since 1989 & we love the Yellow Pages. We love to create products that make it easier for you to run your Directory Publishing company and get your slice of that $30 Billion!

Speak to us about anything from print directory and pagination systems, internet directory publishing, mobile directory publishing, CD Rom directory publishing to sales force automation & social media!

Our software has been licensed to more than 150 directory-publishing companies worldwide. In addition to many sites in the United States, Yellow Magic’s software is installed in Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. It has been used to create directories for 54 countries and in 23 languages. No mean feat!

Images & information from:
http://www.oldtelephonebooks.com