Mar 15, 2025
Bill and David Lappen, Buy-Phone
It's a dangerous game in the computer history field to call
anything the "first." But Buy-Phone is a very strong contender call
itself the first online yellow pages. Years before before Yahoo!,
before Craigslist, Buy-Phone was a text-based dial-up service —
available at 300 and 1200 bits per second — that provided business
listings, movie times, and personal ads, all for free to callers.
The service launched in late 1982 and was limited to the West Los
Angeles area. Buy-Phone was the brainchild of brothers Bill and
David Lappen.
Here's what the August 1984 issue of IEEE Computer
wrote:
"Buy-Phone's "electronic yellow pages" service for Los Angeles
is answering over 3000 consumer requests per day, on any thing trom
movies to restaurants to auto repair - and the best part? It's all
free.
The philosophy was to provide sponsored information paid for
by the advertiser, not the consumer.
The computer organizes over 10,000 listings to respond exactly
to the caller's request. According to the company, the system had
to be easy for computer novices to operate, yet powerful enough to
be of value. Four proficiency levels are used, each introducing
additional features. Beginning users see only six different
categories of listings (restaurants arranged by price or
nationality, movie schedules, plays...). As users advance, they see
an expanded list and are shown how to formulate a search. Retrieved
listings are arranged by their distance from the user, with the
closest shown first. Expert users are able to specify the time and
day they want to buy an item and get information only about stores
that are open then.
Buy-Phone is now testing expansion to determine how difficult
it will be to create similar systems in other cities.
To discover Buy-Phone's service call (213) 474-0270 (300
baud), (213) 470-4679 (1200 baud). Access assistance is available
at (213) 474-2220."
I interviewed Buy-Phone founders Bill and David Lappen on
March 14, 2025.