Most people don't use phonebooks. So why do we still get them?

Each year, you probably get a fat new yellow pages phonebook (listing all the businesses in your area) delivered to your doorstep. It's possible you also get the white pages (listing residential addresses) either as a separate volume or combined as one book. And if you're like 70 percent of Americans, you probably don't even open the phonebook once before the next year's batch arrives. So why are phonebooks still regularly delivered to most American households every year? The answer is a mix of commercial self-interest (for yellow pages) and government regulation (for white pages). But there's one important thing that many people don't know: if you don't use the phonebook, you can opt out online.