I recently spent two weeks attending directory industry events and meeting with companies in the space in Europe and Asia. Many of the issues facing the industry are amazingly consistent across geographical boundaries. There is a need to transform, and quickly, in the Philippines as well as Scandinavia, not to mention the United States. Some companies are further down this path than others.

Meeting with Eniro’s product search team in Stockholm was particularly impressive, given how quickly they were able to move their search platform from a fairly standard IYP search experience to one where product and brand name searches produce rich and relevant results.

Also, meeting with and listening to CEOs of major global directory companies, and the companies that advise and finance them, made it very clear that this industry has a relatively short amount of time to find a credible growth story. And easy answers are very, very hard to come by.

The following are links to blog posts related to my recent journey. These can also be found on our Global Yellow Pages Blog.

Will Yellow Pages Go the Way of the Film Industry?

So How Valuable Is the Sales Channel After All?

Will Investors Ever Love Yellow Again?

Eniro’s View on Mobile Monetization

ADPAI Reflects Transitioning Asian Market