SearchtoPhone: Yellow Pages That Find You

Do you have a gorilla costume in stock?

Have any Olivetti typewriter ribbons?

Do you sell Dyson vacuums?

You may never have to call store after store again now that SearchtoPhone is in the house.



This is Buck Rogers stuff in importance, though deceptively simple in how you use it.

It works like this:

1. Call a number
2. Record what you are looking for.
3. Search to Phone sends your need to registered merchants that match your search terms.
4. Within 60 seconds, a vendor calls you back with that gorilla costume!



I KID YOU NOT!

Free to the consumer, merchants pay when they have what the user wants and they agree to a connect charge to be linked to the needy consumer who is ready to buy.

SearchtoPhone offers literally hundreds of categories in which merchants can classify themselves. And by recording the user's area code and zip, the system ensures that only local merchants are contacted.

Assuming a reasonable conversion rate for the merchant, this is a big Big BIG idea. I love the idea of merchants responding to you with real info rather than being connected to a disinterested clerk.

And at connection fees of 99 cents a call (unlimited length) the service is pretty easy for even small merchants to incorporate into their budgets. Assuming they have sufficient staff, chains and big box retailers could also benefit.

Check it out on the their site and by sending your next need to them.

SearchtoPhone is part of the Boulder Co - based TechStars incubator and mentoring program. Another nice idea from those gals and guys!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.