4 ms·
Back in the deep mists of time you used to be able to call a special operator who would look up the number in a phone book for you. They called it "information
by 13of40 6y ago
Back in the deep mists of time you used to be able to call a special operator who would look up the number in a phone book for you. They called it "information".
- chrisco255 6y agoYeah? Did they have the names of parents and their kids in those directories? Did you have access to the number for anyone in the world or just your local area? Could you find the number for an Irish guy doing an internship in Australia from Los Angeles or London?
- js2 6y agoI can't tell if you're asking seriously or not, but anyway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-1-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-1-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory_assistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory_assistance
- chrisco255 6y agoBuddy they didn't have a social graph on 411. They didn't have names of kids on 411. They didnt have global phone books on 411. The didn't have an Irish man's hotel room number in Melbourne for his summer internship in London's 411.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- cat199 6y agoiirc (only did this a couple of times and that was some time ago), at least by the 80s-90s, you'd call information in the target location long distance. But yes, that wouldn't go deeper than name->number kinds of lookups.
- chrisco255 6y agoBuddy they didn't have a social graph on 411. They didn't have names of kids on 411. They didnt have global phone books on 411. They didn't have an Irish college kids dorm room number in Melbourne for his summer internship in London's 411.
- cat199 6y ago"Buddy" "But yes, that wouldn't go deeper than name->number kinds of lookups."
- DonHopkins 6y agoThanks for the 411 on how the phone system worked back in the day!