192.com Blog

192.com is today calling on the UK to make a stand against the scourge of unwanted phonebooks and  ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ . Make a real difference to our environment by signing our e-petition, calling on the government to setup a centralised opt-in service for phonebooks. Sign Now >>

We believe people should have the choice whether they have 3 phonebooks a year dumped on their doorsteps. That’s 62,000 tons of annual waste that costs an astonishing £7.5M for local councils to clear up! To see just how much phonebooks are costing the earth see our YouTube viral: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg4VEKqQvNc

 Or find out more at www.saynotophonebooks.org

There are big smiles and a few sore heads around the 192.com office today after 192.com smashed its own record to win Best Online Directory at the international 118 Awards last night. The best bit was we won the award for an almost unheard of, 6 years in a row!

It’s always great to receive a pat on the back for all your hard work. But after the phenomenal effort that went into the recently re-launched 192.com website, this industry recognition was sweeter than ever before.

We also picked up a Best Innovation Award for a new people finding service which is due for public release shortly. Stay tuned, we’re sure you’ll be as impressed as the judges were…

We hope you’re enjoying discovering the new 192.com. We’ve heard some great feedback from users and the media so far, including Web User magazine who declared it the website of the fortnight and assigned it a 5 star rating. They said that “the 192.com directory has been radically revamped to make it more comprehensive and user-friendly” and “the smart new 192.com is like several useful online resources rolled into one“.

Other recent comments in the media include:

“Next to this (the new 192.com), traditional directory enquiries services such as Yell.com feel feeble” 
Rob Waugh, The Mail on Sunday

“Let’s face it: The Da Vinci Code could have been solved with Wikipedia and 192.com” 
Damon Wise, The Guardian

So if you need to find people, businesses or places make 192.com your only destination today.  

I’m a very visual person so one of the features of the site I find most helpful is the maps on the results page. This means that instead of just scrolling down a list of results, you can see the people or businesses that you’ve searched for in relation to each other on a map. This was one of the features of the new site that mapping expert Mapperz liked most.

So for example, if you’ve searched for a business, you can find the one closest to your home or a train station. Alternatively, if you’ve searched for a person you can see results in relation to each other. If you’re a signed in user with premium search credits this feature is particularly useful if you’ve searched UK wide (i.e. without specifying a location). Because if you know a person lives in the south east of England, for example, you’ll be able to identify those listings on a map straight away.

If you click on any of the numbered bubbles on the maps, 192.com will give you a snap shot of the contact details for that person or business with a link to the full details page.

Don’t forget, you can resize the map at any time by clicking and dragging the slider between the map and the list of search results.

See your results in relation to each other on a map with the new 192.com:

The new 192.com is now live, after 18 months of hard work, you are now seeing the new and improved 192.com.

We have conducted lots of research and testing to make sure the new site is a vast improvement on the old one. Please let me know what you like and don’t like about the new site as we will be continuing to improve it.

The key element of the new site is to make it much easier to find the information you are looking for, we have completely rewritten our search engine from the ground up making the search much more likely to find the information you are looking for. We have introduced a new refine your search capability which allows you to narrow down your search quickly and easily to find the person or business you are looking for.

We have made the site much more visual from including maps on the result pages so you can see where each of your results are located, to visually displaying things like neighbours, property prices and shops nearby on the details page.

We have now added Company Credit Reports, so in this current economic climate you can check on the financial stability of companies that you are doing business with.

I would like to thank everyone who took part in our research from those I met personally to everyone who has filled in a survey or tried the new site when it was in Beta, all of your feedback has been very important in building the new site.

So go and have an explore of the new site and give us your feedback,

Thank you,

Dominic

Discover the new 192.com >>

We’re pleased to announce the launch of national Family Reunion Day on Sunday the 31st of May, the final day of National Family Week. 192.com is calling on every family in the UK to get together on that day and spend some quality time with extended family.

National Family Week, the UK’s first, has been organised by the largest ever coalition on family issues and runs from the 25th – 31st May. Today, 192.com and National Family week issued researched that showed:

- Family is the ‘most important thing in the world’ to our kids
- More than a quarter of kids and half of parents want to spend more time with family

So we’ve launched a family reunion tool which helps families organise a get together for the 31st of May, mark their family event on a map of the UK, and look for long lost relatives to invite along. With 192.com, there are no excuses, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been out of touch, we will help you find them!  

Who knows, your family could even break the record and get 192 people to attend. If you do, you could win £1000 worth of vouchers from our fellow National Family Week sponsors. 

To find our more and start planning your family reunion visit:
http://www.192.com/general/national-family-week/

You’ve got less than 4 weeks left so you had better get organising!