This year will be pivotal for the global Yellow Pages industry. Much like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will continue to bleed dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines and combination search/listing services like Reach Local and Yodel Factors like an acceleration of the print 'fade rate' and the looming recession will contribute to the onslaught. One research firm predicts the falloff in usage of newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even reach 10% this year -- much higher than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years.

The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that could signal the end of civilization as we know it. The argument is that if newspaper classified's are replaced by free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them.

While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster keeps closing store locations by the hundreds. It still has about 6,000 left across the world, but those keep dwindling and the stock is down considerably in 2008, especially since the company gave up a quest of Circuit City. Movie Gallery, which owned the Hollywood Video brand, closed up shop earlier this year. Countless small video chains and mom-and-pop stores have given up the ghost already.

Dial-up connections have fallen from 40% in 2001 to 10% in 2008. The combination of an infrastructure to accommodate affordable high speed Internet connections and the disappearing home phone have all but pounded the final nail in the coffin of dial-up Internet access.

According to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly one in six homes was cell-only and, of those homes that had landline's, one in eight only received calls on their cells.

Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake Bay. Last year Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds) since 1945. Just four decades ago the bay produced 96 million pounds. The population is down 70% since 1990, when they first did a formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs in the bay and they think they need 200 million for a sustainable population. Over-fishing, pollution, invasive species and global warming get the blame.

For the better part of three decades, the VCR was a best-seller and staple in every American household until being completely decimated by the DVD, and now the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). In fact, the only remnants of the VHS age at your local Wal-Mart or Radio Shack are blank VHS tapes these days. Pre-recorded VHS tapes are largely gone and VHS decks are practically nowhere to be found. They served us so well.

In the late 1990s, a pretty, iridescent green species of beetle, now known as the emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North America with ash wood products imported from eastern Asia. In less than a decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in the Midwest, and continue to spread. They've killed more than 30 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of millions more lost in Ohio and Indiana. More than 7.5 billion ash trees are currently at risk.

Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide) wireless communications with each other and are able to support their communities with emergency and disaster communications if necessary, while increasing their personal knowledge of electronics and radio theory. However, proliferation of the Internet and its popularity among youth has caused the decline of amateur radio. In the past five years alone, the number of people holding active ham radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even though Morse Code is no longer a requirement.

Thanks to our litigious society, swimming holes are becoming a thing of the past. '20/20' reports that swimming hole owners, like Robert Every in High Falls, NY, are shutting them down out of worry that if someone gets hurt they'll sue. And that's exactly what happened in Seattle. The city of Bellingham was sued by Katie Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall at a popular swimming hole in Whatcom Falls Park. As injuries occur and lawsuits follow, expect more swimming holes to post 'Keep out!' signs.

The increasing disappearance of answering machines is directly tied to No 20 our list -- the decline of landline's. According to USA Today, the number of homes that only use cell phones jumped 159% between 2004 and 2007. It has been particularly bad in New York; since 2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It's logical that as cell phones rise, many of them replacing traditional landline's, that there will be fewer answering machines.

It doesn't require a statistician to prove the rapid disappearance of the film camera in America. Just look to companies like Nikon, the professional's choice for quality camera equipment. In 2006, it announced that it would stop making film cameras, pointing to the shrinking market -- only 3% of its sales in 2005, compared to 75% of sales from digital cameras and equipment.

Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt) bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement and all-things-sustainable-energy crowd, the Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (CFL) is largely replacing the older, Edison-era incandescent bulb. The EPA reports that 2007 sales for Energy Star CFLs nearly doubled from 2006, and these sales accounted for approximately 20 percent of the U.S. light bulb market. And according to USA Today, a new energy bill plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in the next four to 12 years.

Bowling Alleys. US claims there are still 60 million Americans who bowl at least once a year, but many are not bowling in stand-alone bowling alleys. Today most new bowling alleys are part of facilities for all types or recreation including laser tag, go-karts, bumper cars, video game arcades, climbing walls and glow miniature golf. Bowling lanes also have been added to many non-traditional venues such as adult communities, hotels and resorts, and gambling casinos.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1950, over half of the milk delivered was to the home in quart bottles, by 1963, it was about a third and by 2001, it represented only 0.4% percent. Nowadays most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is blamed, of course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration and longer-lasting milk. Although some milk men still make the rounds in pockets of the U.S., they are certainly a dying breed.

In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were sent each day. Two million each second. By November of 2007, an estimated 3.3 billion Earthlings owned cell phones, and 80% of the world's population had access to cell phone coverage. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and the number has no doubt increased exponentially since then. So where amongst this gorge of gabble is there room for the elegant, polite hand-written letter?

It is estimated that 100 years ago, as many as two million horses were roaming free within the United States. In 2001, National Geographic News estimated that the wild horse population had decreased to about 50,000 head. Currently, the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory board states that there are 32,000 free roaming horses in ten Western states, with half of them residing in Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management is seeking to reduce the total number of free range horses to 27,000, possibly by selective euthanasia.

According to an American Bankers Assoc. report, a net 23% of consumers plan to decrease their use of checks over the next two years, while a net 14% plan to increase their use of PIN debit. Bill payment remains the last stronghold of paper-based payments -- for the time being. Checks continue to be the most commonly used bill payment method, with 71% of consumers paying at least one recurring bill per month by writing a check. However, on a bill-by-bill basis, checks account for only 49% of consumers' recurring bill payments (down from 72% in 2001 and 60% in 2003).

During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-in theaters in this country, but in 2007 only 405 drive-in's were still operating. Exactly zero new drive-in's have been built since 2005. Only one reopened in 2005 and five reopened in 2006, so there isn't much of a movement toward reviving the closed ones.

Despite what's been in the news lately, the measles and mumps actually, truly are disappearing from the United States. In 1964, 212,000 cases of mumps were reported in the U.S. By 1983, this figure had dropped to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination program. Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine, approximately half a million cases of measles were reported in the U.S. annually, resulting in 450 deaths. In 2005, only 66 cases were recorded.

Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing America is so dire; plummeting so enormously; and so necessary to the survival of our food supply as the honey bee. Very scary. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD, has spread throughout the U.S. and Europe over the past few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many beekeepers -- and along with it, their livelihood.

While the TV evening newscasts haven't gone anywhere over the last several decades, their audiences have. In 1984, in a story about the diminishing returns of the evening news, the New York Times reported that all three network evening-news programs combined had only 40.9 million viewers. Fast forward to 2008, and what they have today is half that.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of homes in the U.S. get their television programming through cable or satellite providers. For the remaining 15% -- or 13 million individuals -- who are using rabbit ears or a large outdoor antenna to get their local stations, change is in the air. If you are one of these people you'll need to get a new TV or a converter box in order to get the new stations which will only be broadcast in digital.

Since the 1930s, the number of family farms has been declining rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in 1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census (data from the 2007 census hasn't yet been published). Ninety-one percent of the U.S. FARMS are small Family Farms.

Both interesting and saddening, isn't it?

This year will be pivotal for the global Yellow Pages industry.

Much like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will continue to bleed

dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet

Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines and combination

search/listing services like Reach Local and Yodel Factors like an

acceleration of the print 'fade rate' and the looming recession

will contribute to the onslaught. One research firm predicts the

falloff in usage of newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even

reach 10% this year -- much higher than the 2%-3% fade rate seen

in past years.

The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper

classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a

long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that

could signal the end of civilization as we know it. The argument

is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online

listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then

newspapers are not far behind them.

While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster keeps

closing store locations by the hundreds. It still has about 6,000

left across the world, but those keep dwindling and the stock is

down considerably in 2008, especially since the company gave up a

quest of Circuit City. Movie Gallery, which owned the Hollywood

Video brand, closed up shop earlier this year. Countless small

video chains and mom-and-pop stores have given up the ghost

already.

Dial-up connections have fallen from 40% in 2001 to 10% in 2008.

The combination of an infrastructure to accommodate affordable

high speed Internet connections and the disappearing home phone

have all but pounded the final nail in the coffin of dial-up

Internet access.

According to a survey from the National Center for Health

Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly one in six homes was

cell-only and, of those homes that had landlines, one in eight

only received calls on their cells.

Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake

Bay. Last year Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds)

since 1945. Just four decades ago the bay produced 96 million

pounds. The population is down 70% since 1990, when they first did

a formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs in the bay

and they think they need 200 million for a sustainable population.

Over-fishing, pollution, invasive species and global warming get

the blame.

For the better part of three decades, the VCR was a best-seller

and staple in every American household until being completely

decimated by the DVD, and now the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). In

fact, the only remnants of the VHS age at your local Wal-Mart or

Radio Shack are blank VHS tapes these days. Pre-recorded VHS tapes

are largely gone and VHS decks are practically nowhere to be

found. They served us so well.

In the late 1990s, a pretty, iridescent green species of beetle,

now known as the emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North

America with ash wood products imported from eastern Asia. In less

than a decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in the

Midwest, and continue to spread. They've killed more than 30

million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of

millions more lost in Ohio and Indiana. More than 7.5 billion ash

trees are currently at risk.

Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide)

wireless communications with each other and are able to support

their communities with emergency and disaster communications if

necessary, while increasing their personal knowledge of

electronics and radio theory. However, proliferation of the

Internet and its popularity among youth has caused the decline of

amateur radio. In the past five years alone, the number of people

holding active ham radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even

though Morse Code is no longer a requirement.

Thanks to our litigious society, swimming holes are becoming a

thing of the past. '20/20' reports that swimming hole owners, like

Robert Every in High Falls, NY, are shutting them down out of

worry that if someone gets hurt they'll sue. And that's exactly

what happened in Seattle. The city of Bellingham was sued by Katie

Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall at a popular swimming hole

in Whatcom Falls Park. As injuries occur and lawsuits follow,

expect more swimming holes to post 'Keep out!' signs.

The increasing disappearance of answering machines is directly

tied to No 20 our list -- the decline of landlines. According to

USA Today, the number of homes that only use cell phones jumped

159% between 2004 and 2007. It has been particularly bad in New

York; since 2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It's logical

that as cell phones rise, many of them replacing traditional

landlines, that there will be fewer answering machines.

It doesn't require a statistician to prove the rapid disappearance

of the film camera in America. Just look to companies like Nikon,

the professional's choice for quality camera equipment. In 2006,

it announced that it would stop making film cameras, pointing to

the shrinking market -- only 3% of its sales in 2005, compared to

75% of sales from digital cameras and equipment.

Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt)

bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement

and all-things-sustainable-energy crowd, the Compact Fluorescent

Lightbulb (CFL) is largely replacing the older, Edison-era

incandescent bulb. The EPA reports that 2007 sales for Energy Star

CFLs nearly doubled from 2006, and these sales accounted for

approximately 20 percent of the U.S. light bulb market. And

according to USA Today, a new energy bill plans to phase out

incandescent bulbs in the next four to 12 years.

BowlingBalls. US claims there are still 60 million Americans who

bowl at least once a year, but many are not bowling in stand-alone

bowling alleys. Today most new bowling alleys are part of

facilities for all types or recreation including laser tag,

go-karts, bumper cars, video game arcades, climbing walls and glow

miniature golf. Bowling lanes also have been added to many

non-traditional venues such as adult communities, hotels and

resorts, and gambling casinos.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1950, over

half of the milk delivered was to the home in quart bottles, by

1963, it was about a third and by 2001, it represented only 0.4%

percent. Nowadays most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon

jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is blamed, of

course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration

and longer-lasting milk. Although some milkmen still make the

rounds in pockets of the U.S., they are certainly a dying breed.

In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion

e-mails were sent each day. Two million each second. By November

of 2007, an estimated 3.3 billion Earthlings owned cell phones,

and 80% of the world's population had access to cell phone

coverage. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and

the number has no doubt increased exponentially since then. So

where amongst this gorge of gabble is there room for the elegant,

polite hand-written letter?

It is estimated that 100 years ago, as many as two million horses

were roaming free within the United States. In 2001, National

Geographic News estimated that the wild horse population had

decreased to about 50,000 head. Currently, the National Wild Horse

and Burro Advisory board states that there are 32,000 free roaming

horses in ten Western states, with half of them residing in

Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management is seeking to reduce the

total number of free range horses to 27,000, possibly by selective

euthanasia.

According to an American Bankers Assoc. report, a net 23% of

consumers plan to decrease their use of checks over the next two

years, while a net 14% plan to increase their use of PIN debit.

Bill payment remains the last stronghold of paper-based

payments -- for the time being. Checks continue to be the most

commonly used bill payment method, with 71% of consumers paying at

least one recurring bill per month by writing a check. However, on

a bill-by-bill basis, checks account for only 49% of consumers'

recurring bill payments (down from 72% in 2001 and 60% in 2003).

During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-in

theaters in this country, but in 2007 only 405 drive-ins were

still operating. Exactly zero new drive-ins have been built since

2005. Only one reopened in 2005 and five reopened in 2006, so

there isn't much of a movement toward reviving the closed ones.

Despite what's been in the news lately, the measles and mumps

actually, truly are disappearing from the United States. In 1964,

212,000 cases of mumps were reported in the U.S. By 1983, this

figure had dropped to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination

program. Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine,

approximately half a million cases of measles were reported in the

U.S. annually, resulting in 450 deaths. In 2005, only 66 cases

were recorded.

Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing America is so dire;

plummeting so enormously; and so necessary to the survival of our

food supply as the honey bee. Very scary. 'Colony Collapse

Disorder,' or CCD, has spread throughout the U.S. and Europe over

the past few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many

beekeepers -- and along with it, their livelihood.

While the TV evening newscasts haven't gone anywhere over the last

several decades, their audiences have. In 1984, in a story about

the diminishing returns of the evening news, the New York Times

reported that all three network evening-news programs combined had

only 40.9 million viewers. Fast forward to 2008, and what they

have today is half that.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of homes in

the U.S. get their television programming through cable or

satellite providers. For the remaining 15% -- or 13 million

individuals -- who are using rabbit ears or a large outdoor

antenna to get their local stations, change is in the air. If you

are one of these people you'll need to get a new TV or a converter

box in order to get the new stations which will only be broadcast

in digital.

Since the 1930s, the number of family farms has been declining

rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the

nation in 1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the

2003 farm census (data from the 2007 census hasn't yet been

published). Ninety-one percent of the U.S. FARMS are small Family

Farms.

Both interesting and saddening, isn't it?