THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 3, 1994 TAG: 9410010175
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG KANE, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Firms that do business throughout the nation might benefit from a new phone book on CD-ROM.
PhoneDisc's Digital Directory Assistance packs 91 million residential and business phone listings onto five CDs, and searches, sorts and culls all that data.
Pop in a CD, type ``Clinton, Bill'' and PhoneDisc shows you all the Bill Clintons in all the phone books in the roughly 10-state region covered by that disk. (The president's number, by the way, is unlisted.)
OPINION
PhoneDisc listings include name, number and address, but not age, gender, job, credit history or other personal secrets.
The combination of the computer's gift for blistering fast data retrieval with the nation's oceanic supply of phone listings makes for a versatile business and personal tool.
If your company makes knitting spindles, PhoneDisc can give you the names and addresses of all the knitting mills in the country. It will store the list in a format your mail merge software will understand.
If you are campaigning for a seat on the city council, PhoneDisc will print mailing labels for each potential voting household in your district.
If you live for deep-dish Cajun, PhoneDisc will find all the pizza shops listed on New Orleans' Bourbon Street.
If you're planning a class reunion, or hunting for a missing loved one, PhoneDisc takes only minutes to look everywhere in the country.
PhoneDisc comes in several versions. Each CD works on both Mac and PC computers.
The business and residential directories are sold separately, $79, or together, $129. The PowerFinder version, $249, adds the ability to search backward - to find names when you know only addresses or phone numbers.
Because a phone number is only useful if someone picks up at the other end, PhoneDisc is upgraded every three months.
Each of the nation's 4,800 white-page directories is reviewed and then cross-checked against the National Postal Service Change of Address File on the average of once a year. Four quarterly PowerFinder updates cost $599.
I tested PhoneDisc against 40 business numbers listed in my local white pages. Ten of the businesses were not on PhoneDisc, but every number PhoneDisc did list was correct - including two that had changed since my white pages were printed.
If you are compiling mailing lists, be sure you understand the fine print before you buy. PhoneDisc will not export more than 250 listings in any month. You can pay extra for more downloads.
PhoneDisc does not include toll-free 800 numbers.
It does list some government numbers, but don't rely on it for them.
With few flaws - the 250 listing download limit chief among them - and useful information by the bushel basket, PhoneDisc is priced between $79 to $599, depending on options. Phone 1 (800) 284-8353 for more information. by CNB