Neat Stuff with Switchboard.com

by Cunning Linguist  (cunninglinguist@hushmail.com)

Switchboard.com - it's the Yellow Pages.  Electrified.

Switchboard is an online directory of citizens nationwide.  You can find friends, family, or anyone listed with a name you know.

In many cases, you'll come up with more than one listing for a specified name.  One of the cool things about Switchboard.com is the fact that if a person has all of their information you might be able to find a lot more information than you intended.

On a search for my name, I found one of me listed in my area and found his complete address, all three of his phone numbers, and all of his e-mail addresses.

Switchboard.com also provides hours of entertainment for the bored teenager in his room with nothing to do.  Searching for one mister Harry Balls provides barrels of laughs, as does searching for Dick Paine and Harry Butts.  But now, on to the real stuff...

Like the Amazon.com mishap a while back, where people could write comments about a book as the author of that book, Switchboard.com allows you to add or delete users listed without any authentication whatsoever, except an e-mail address.

When I searched for my information, I didn't find me, but I found my mother and father.  I opted to delete their listings from the database of people, so I took the appropriate steps by clicking on their names (which appear in bold text), clicking the Update Listing link on the right-hand menu, and clicking the button labeled Remove Listing.  (You can also update the listing, also by simply entering an e-mail address which no doubt you'll throw away at Yahoo!'s expense.)

After entering an e-mail address I shan't use again, I received a link in the confirmation mail which I was instructed to click.  After I complied, I was directed to a page that told me the listing was removed.

You can modify or delete any person's account.  I'm sure Joe Public in Somewhere, USA, wont' be too pleased if his family is looking for his phone number online and dials Ms. Trixy's House of Sexy Sexual Sex by mistake.  Or if they can't find it at all.

Adding a listing is not a problem, either.

Here's one some fellow posted: www.switchboard.com/bin/cginbr.dll?ID=500683995&MEM=1&FUNC=MORE&TYPE=1007

In retrospect, I suppose you really can't use any kind of security measure to ensure a random person doesn't delete your listing.  I mean, the listings end up there one way or another; I know my father didn't add his listing.  He probably put his name and address on a form somewhere, and whoosh, he was in a national online directory.

Just thought I'd share this fun little story with you.

Thanks to C1d for showing me the fun I can have while bored and watching The Mummy Returns all day, every day.  [And I'll see Vel3r and Real Vonce in school.]