Select Phone CD-ROM
Review

Select Phone
Price: $99.00
Company: Pro CD, Inc.

90 million business and residential listings. That’s what the ad for Pro CD’s Select Phone states. Impressive. And so is the six discs and programs you get when you buy this handy CD Rom set.

Many features grace this program. You can, of course, search for a name or address. You can click on a button to find out who lives next door to that person. You can enter a SIC code for looking up business of a certain type, like Macintosh vendors in the 90215 area code. You can search for phone numbers numerically adjacent to the one you choose. Heck, Select Phone even has the ability to dial the number for you!

I tested Select Phone exhaustively for a few months. I threw everything at it. I searched by name. Phone number. Address. Area code. Zip code. SIC Code. You name it, I did it. And along the way, I found Select Phone a good value, although it does have a few minor problems.

First, it needs to be better updated. This is a problem I really see no solution to, though, as how do you update a CD Rom? Well, when I first tested Select Phone, I tried a SIC code search for a friend in the Chicago area for a business related venture. He wanted all the corporate party planners in the Chicago and Detroit area, both address and phone number. So, after learning the proper SIC code, I went to work. My attempt’s to find anything was disappointing. I had a Chicago yellow pages directory in my lap, looking at a huge listing of party planners, many of them of the corporate type. Select Phone, however, listed next to none. Curious, I entered one of the phone numbers from the directory into Select Phone’s search field, and got a “No listing” response. The search of the same SIC code in Detroit, however, yielded much better results.

According to Pro CD, the problem was that, while many cities are updated with every version release, not every city is updated every time. And Chicago happened to fall into that category. They would, I was told, send me the next version release, which would have the updated Chicago listings.

Pro CD is very committed to this product, and after waiting three months, they also showed their support for their customers by sending me the new version, free of charge. Hat’s off to such fine customer relations on Pro CD’s part!

When I first tested Select Phone, it was a five CD set. The newest version for 1996 is a six CD set, so something must have been added to warrant a sixth CD! And when I tried my SIC code search as before, almost all the listings I showed in the directory was now included, but not all. Pro CD does not, however, make a claim that every phone number, business, and person is listed in Select Phone, as this would be impossible. But is there enough right now to warrant a consideration on your part to buy it? You bet!

My next test was only for fun. Select Phone is good for this as well! You can spend hours trying to look up old classmates, or see if there are any listings for famous people. Heck, I thought, lets see if Elvis is listed in California! (He is, or at least a business and some dedicated fans!) Or how about James T. Kirk, Captain of the Star Ship Enterprise! Yup, him too! In fact, in California, there are four James T. Kirk’s, but only one with the title Capt.!

Select Phone has some very helpful post-search options as well. You can copy a name or listing to your “Tag manager”, a hard drive application for storing your searches, so you can swap CD’s in as needed. You can also export listings to other software, like a Clarisworks database, or a Microsoft Word document. You can print out tagged items from your Tag manager to a printer, with the option of printing on address labels, like Avery 5160 laser printing labels, perfect for a small business.

Is Select Phone worth buying? For a small business, definitely yes. You will use it often, even though at times, a search can take a long time. (Hint: narrow your search parameters as much as possible.) For a Macintosh or PC user who never calls much outside his or her own town; not really. Oh, sure, you will have fun looking up stuff for a little while, but the novelty will wear off, at which time Select Phone will become a dust magnet.

Select Phone’s overall quality is very good, as is Pro CD’s customer service. All in all, I would recommend you get it if you could really use it. Otherwise, use directory assistance.