As you can imagine, the name meanings that we uncovered sparked many internal debates on visual interpretation, a topic I am truly passionate about.  While I focus primarily on graphic design here at WhitePages, I am an illustrator at heart and therefore, jumped at the chance to take the WhitePages Names functionality to another level.  I am pleased to present 50 Cent’s newest fashion statement, just before his new album Before I Self Destruct drops.

50 Cent:  Curtis “Short Leggings” Jackson

I definitely appreciate the fact that when it comes to art, everyone has their own interpretation, so I’d love to hear what you visualize when you examine the meaning behind the names of some of the most “followed” celebrities on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Baby Naming Do’s and Don’ts

Baby Dominic

Not only can you explore potential names, but you can now uncover the origin, meaning, and popularity all in one place.  We’re the only site where you can determine popularity for the Unique end of the name popularity spectrum, which is timely because this research from SDSU shows that more than ever parents want to give their children unique names.

In analyzing the names of some 325 million children born in 1880 or later, researchers from San Diego State University and the University of Georgia found just nine per cent of boys born in 2007 were given a “top 10″ name, compared with 32 per cent in 1955; for girls, only eight per cent had a top 10 name in 2007, versus 22 per cent in 1955.

We know that we’re not a one-stop-shop for naming your children, so here are some other recommended resources and methods we think you should try when choosing a name.

Do:

1. Test it out in the wild
   Try using your name at a restaurant where they have to call you when it’s time to be seated. Or yell it at a park. You may discover other ways people write it, say it, etc.
2. Look through your own Genealogy
   Nobody can fault a “family name” – adding that extra tie-in can really be great.  Just be sure you pick the right side of the family and go back far enough or not too far so it’s not too “out there” – unless that’s what you’re looking for. (Love you great Great-great-grandpa Luigi and Great-great-grandma Luigia!). This is how my wife and I found our son’s name (Dominic – from a semi-distant uncle Dominici).
3. Find out what it means
   This is an area where we can help. Not that it’s the only factor, but if you’ve got it down to a few names, say “Portia” and “Felice”.  Knowing that Portia means “Pig” and Felicia means “Lucky” may just push you in one direction or the other.
4. Google it! Or make sure you’ll be able to.
   How many people have that name? If your last name is “Smith” and you pick a common first name, you’ll probably never be able to have a site or page about you come up in a search result.  Plus they’ll have to get real creative for email, Facebook, nicknames, and more. We’ve got you covered here, too – names.whitepages.com is the only place you can see how many people have that FULL name. (24k people name James Smith – you could fill a stadium with Jim, Jimmy, and James’!!)
5. Start early
   We have 200M people in our database, so you’ve got searching to do – get to it!

Don’t:

1. Don’t tell anybody, especially the grandparents.
2. Don’t wait until the last minute.  See: Fetus (9 people named this), Boy (215), Baby (1,396).
3. Don’t get too creative (see Million Dollar, Tag Euritt, or any of the Simpson’s names here)
4. Don’t put it up to bid (sorry, Ebay and mechanical Turk can’t help you here – this is your first big parenting task, own it!).
5. Don’t sweat it too much – whatever you pick will be the right name.

Related posts:

1. 50 Cent’s New Look
2. Playing the Name Game
3. comScore Reports Record WhitePages Traffic in June!

Last summer, I found a Prada purse while walking to work.  Inside, I found an ID with a name and address and then naturally looked the woman up on WhitePages.  She had a home address listing but no way for me to get in touch with her immediately.  Had she edited her listing prior to that incident, I could have called her cell, sent her a text message, or sent her an email to let her know I found her purse.  Instead, it took days for her to be reunited with her belongings, which included a flash drive with her final paper for school on it!

To use this feature, you can either:

1. Edit an existing listing by searching for yourself and clicking the “Is this you? Edit” link next to your name, or…
2. Add a new one by clicking the “Add Your Listing” tab on the homepage.

From there just create a login and fill out the form.  Please feel free to post your comments, questions, or concerns.  I will be listening!

Related posts:

1. Edit Your WhitePages Listing
2. Be Found and Connect With Email Listings!
3. Lost Prada Purse in Seattle – The Power of WhitePages!

It was an exhausting day to be sure, but after a day of attacking invasive ivy, blackberry, and clematis vines that were strangling the trees in Interlaken Park in Seattle, the WhitePages team had a lot to be proud of.  We cleared over 45 trees and six thousand square feet of overgrown hillside and placed mulch there to prevent regrowth until the Friends of Interlaken Park can return later this year to replant native, tree-friendly plants.  We joined over 9,000 volunteers county-wide on September 11^th who participated in the United Way of King County Day of Caring, 2009 that helped 270 nonprofit organizations.

Paul rocked out to tunes as he fought the hillside tirelessly, and Devin, Greg and Kevin pretty much looked like they had been run over by a truck at the end of the day.  Somehow mysteriously, Andrea’s shirt managed to stay just-washed white.  And it was good to see that when our community calls, Zoe is willing to go without her heels for a day.  The next week, my arms still looked like I got into an alley fight with a cat (I did not heed the warnings to wear a long sleeve shirt, which clearly was in order given the blackberries).

After five or so hours of serious labor and hill-climbing, the team celebrated with happy hour outside of the Garage on a lovely Seattle afternoon.  It was a great day out of the office, and a great opportunity to give back to our local community.  Huge thanks to the United Way for making it so easy for us to participate as a group in community service.

Related posts:

1. Happy 10th Birthday to Us!
2. 2007 Best Companies to Work For
3. Playing the Name Game

Ingrid Michelsen recently wrote about how WhitePages Mobile Moved From the Sidelines To The Limelight in 6 months and today we announce reaching over 2 million users on mobile.

We have learned a lot, sharing with MediaPost the importance of having ad-supported and paid models, innovating with new services like Caller ID, and why the carrier pipes are a lot smarter then folks give them credit for. In today’s Mobile Marketer, we offer some of the key success factors advertisers should consider around targeting, brand, and performance.

Leading the charge in the delivery of our mobile services is Bret Moore, the most productive mobile product executive in the industry. In the last year, Bret has led 6 key mobile product launches and 16 updates/new versions for new devices. Bret presented our Caller ID for Android at this years Google I/O conference. Check out all of the innovative products he has launched in the related posts section below or by clicking on his name.

Finally, our mobile services provide even more reasons why we no longer need the paper phone book. WhitePages Mobile gives you access to hundreds of millions of contacts, right at your fingertips, and on the go.

Let’s hug a tree and Ban The Phonebooks!

Follow us on Twitter for More Mobile Updates:
http://twitter.com/mooreb
http://twitter.com/knakao

On YouTube:
WhitePages Q&A Series – Mobile

Related posts:

1. WhitePages Mobile for iPhone v1.3: It’s Smarter
2. WhitePages Mobile for iPhone – New and Improved App!
3. (Mobile) Innovation Will End This Global Recession

You can see how many people have your name as well as how often it’s been searched for on WhitePages.com. Since football season is about to start, I’ll highlight just one example related to that. There are over 1221 people with the last name Favre in the US. The highest concentration is in Mississippi – where the former current former current NFL QB Brett Favre calls home.

There are actually 2 people named Brett Favre in our database – one in Mississippi and one in Tennessee.  The most searches since June happened on June 26^th (that must have been the Minnesota Vikings looking for his number before they signed him…see, everyone uses WhitePages!).

So take a look around, search for your name twin or other fascinating and interesting names you can find. Share them on your blog or badge (see the badge below) or at least in the comments!

Pages

is the most popular last name in the US. has been searched in the past month.

• Educate others about the environmental impact of printing white pages phone books
• Encourage people to sign a petition showing their support for an ‘opt-in’ program
• Support phone companies, consumers and others in their efforts to curb the unnecessary printing and delivery of WPPB.

Ultimately though, our efforts with BanThePhoneBook.org are all about making a big environmental impact.

My interest in the topic began when I first joined WhitePages and noticed that both our website users and advertisers were continually confusing us with the printed phone books that are delivered every year. As AT&T started stepping up their efforts this year to implement ‘opt-in’ delivery programs within certain States earlier in the year this whole white pages phone book thing has been top-of-mind for all of us here at WhitePages.

With that interest in mind, we’ve been busy gathering as much information as possible over the past few months.  We’ve had conversations with numerous folks who’ve shown interest in curbing the printing and delivery of the WPPB, scoured hundreds of websites, talked to environmental organizations and delved into some really thorough research papers.  And just recently, the WhitePages team even surveyed our own user to get their take on the WPPB issue.

So exactly what did we find during our WPPB research efforts?

The environmental impact and economic costs are mind-boggling: WhitePages estimates that 5M trees need to be harvested each year to print ~147M white pages phone books.  And the costs to recycle these books each year costs taxpayers an estimated $17M. (Are you kidding? Any way you look at it these estimates, the numbers are absolutely staggering.)

State laws exist that require telephone companies to print and distribute WPPB: It’s not that the phone companies want to print these wasteful books (it’s a pretty big cost for them).  They’re required by law to deliver a phone book to every landline customer!  Makes a ton of sense, right?

Consumers are unaware of the environmental waste of printing the WPPB: When asked if they knew that millions of trees are cut down each year to print the WPPB each year, 74% of survey respondents answered ‘No’. And Less than 16% recycle their old books (that’s nuts).

Consumers would overwhelmingly support an ‘Opt-in’ Program: When asked if they would support an “opt-in” program (only receive a white pages phone book if you request one) if they it would have a positive impact on the environment and save taxpayers millions of dollars each year, 81% of survey respondents responded ‘Yes’.

Many different free alternatives to the WPPB exist: Whether it’s an online directory like whitepages.com, social networks, search engines or killer mobile apps like this one, there are clearly alternatives to the printed white pages phone book. And the vast majority of these alternatives are much, much, much more environmentally friendly than the WPPB. (yeah, we have a couple of self-promotional plugs, afterall we do provide free contact information for over 90 percent of US adults!)

Ultimately though, our efforts with BanThePhoneBook.org are all about making a big environmental impact.  If this initiative succeeds in making people aware of the issues and impacts real, measurable change, then we’ll be nothing but smiles here in Seattle.

There’s no reason for  the white pages phone book spam  to continue (think doorstops, booster seats, monitor stands, etc.) only to end up in landfills.  If you agree, sign the petition. If not, at least recycle them!

I’m almost afraid to ask, but if you have any comments, questions, criticisms or concerns, just post below.

Related posts:

1. The End of the Phone Book?
2. 5 Reasons Why You Don’t Need Phone Books
3. Death to the White Pages, Long Live WhitePages

As a Development Manager here at WhitePages, we are blazing new trails with today’s technology.

Today’s web browsers make it possible for our visitors to search, find and connect with friends, family and businesses in an interface that is not only easy to use but refreshing to look at. I encourage all all of our developers to design all of our products with the full intention of providing the most intuitive user experience possible. The sad truth is that not all browsers offer the ability to provide the best user experience. The pains of supporting IE6, already outdated by both IE7 and IE8,  has already gotten to the point where we have had to hold back on innovation and features that will make your browsing experience even better than it is now. At least one developer has already had to spend  more than a couple of days implementing a new layout and design, that using up-to-date browsers would have been completed in less than an hour. The workarounds necessary to present a readable, effective interface are constant hurdles.

Today’s browsers provide the user with an enhanced layout model, uninhibited by inaccurate measurements and mandatory padding of objects. They accept new formats for images and embedded objects without suffering from an incomplete implementation. Most of all they encourage good security practices and inhibit malicious JavaScript that can expose your private information.

My team and I are dedicated to providing our visitors not only the data they are searching for, but an environment that is friendly, useful and safe. That’s why I am proud that WhitePages is a supporter of the IE6NoMore initiative, because we all believe your safe experience on the web should be the best possible experience.

Yesterday, WhitePages added advertising banners to our pages that will help you update your outdated browsers and better understand what you can do ensure that they have a fantastic user experience. When you visit WhitePages running IE6 you will be shown the links to the more updated browsers, including Firefox 3.5, IE8, Safari 4 and Google Chrome. Better your web experience: download and install one of these browsers and if you are part of a larger organization, let your IT department know you need the upgrade to a modern browser, for your benefit and theirs.

Are you a web developer as well? What are your opinions? I am eager to hear your thoughts.

Today we’re taking the covers off our latest mobile product – LOOKUP!   This new text messaging service is the first of its kind – and it’s amazingly simple to use.  Just text any 10-digit phone number to 566587 (LOOKUP) to find out who called or texted you.   Sound easy?  It is.

Of course, text messaging is the single most popular use of mobile phones aside from, well, calling.   What may surprise you is how many people are not only using text to keep in touch, but also to find information.  Some recent research showed that 38% of mobile phone users have searched for information using text messaging!

So, it’s a natural to take the WhitePages database of 600MM listings – including hard to find mobile and unpublished numbers — and make it available through text.  Now, if you have one of our new iPhone, Android or BlackBerry apps, you may already use WhitePages to find people and businesses on the go.   However, we wanted something that anyone could use, no matter what kind of phone they had.  Here’s how you do it:

• Text any phone number to 566587 (LOOKUP).
• We’ll tell you if we have a match.
• Reply GO to see the caller name and address.

That’s it!   The service is available for $1.99 per match found, or $2.99 per month to look up as many numbers as you want.  That’s about the price of a call to 411 – but includes millions of numbers you can’t find anyway else.

Give it a try on your phone today – and happy texting!

Thoughts, questions, concerns?  Just post a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

Bret

Related posts:

1. Caller ID By WhitePages for the Google Android Phone
2. Make FREE Calls On Your Cell Phone
3. Out Now! WhitePages Mobile for BlackBerry App World

What does the white page phonebook  and www.whitepages.com have in common?

• A common purpose: to help you connect with a person or business
• They are both free

Beyond that, little else.

What, you ask, are the differences?

The printed white pages phonebook is a bulky, paper-wasting, antiquated directory of land line phone numbers and physical addresses in a single geographic area (ever tried looking someone up in Oakland in a San Francisco phonebook?).

With over 90% of US adults’ residential, professional and customer-supplied email and cell phone listings on our site and popular mobile applications, WhitePages is the most widely used, trusted source for personal contact information today.

Millions of WhitePages users are becoming registered site members so they can add their email addresses and cell phone numbers, taking control of their contact information so they can be reached even if they’ve canceled their land line service.   Most people are surprised by that number, but WhitePages has invested significantly in safeguarding people’s privacy with WhitePages’ blind relay features, freeing people to post their cell phones and email addresses knowing no one will see those numbers unless permissioned to do so.

We’ve also recently added Free Text Messaging from your computer and three new mobile applications which you’ve no doubt read about before on this blog (iPhone, BlackBerry and Android), and soon we’ll be launching a text messaging lookup service.

Why am I so excited to explain how we’re different from the printed phone book?

The name, WhitePages, has been associated with words like “wasteful”, “antiquated” and “local” for a long time, and it’s those associations that confuse potential media buying and advertising partners. They think we’re just a digital phone book—why would I need to advertise there?

With WhitePages recent re-brand, we have not only transformed ourselves to users, but added increased value to advertisers:

• Leading-edge, trusted brand offering privacy-centric listing and communication tools

- Integrated product launch sponsorship opportunities

- Advertising placements within our member listing applications (i.e. Add Your Listing)

• High reach (22MM unique users per month) to a loyal, fast-growing audience of affluent adults who rely on WhitePages in the midst of life changes and events such as moving, getting married and starting a business.

• Advanced audience targeting solutions:

- Behavioral targeting derived from business searches and usage levels

- Wireless carrier targeting

- Demographic targeting

-Re-targeting and other audience segmentation offerings using third party cookies

-Dynamic localization and personalization of display and text ads on results pages

• Updated, cleaner design with large-format IAB ad units, as well as high impact custom rich media offerings including the new OPA pushdown unit

And the biggest value we continually prove to our advertisers is IT WORKS. If you’re an advertiser or agency and have feedback or suggestions on how we can better serve your needs, We’d love to hear about it below.

Max

Related posts:

1. Ban the White Pages Phone Book!
2. Add Your Cell Number
3. WhitePages.com Tribute to The Reverend Shredder