The Yellow Pages industry is about to release its annual usage study, according to which growth is coming from online.

Americans looked up 16.3 billion references in Yellow Pages in 2005, up from 16.1 billion in 2004 - but the number of times they referred to printed Yellow Pages declined from 14.6 billion to 14.5 billion, writes MediaPost, citing an annual Yellow Pages Association study conducted by Knowledge Networks/Statistical Research Inc. The good news for the industry is that online directory references were up, to 1.8 billion in 2005 from 1.5 billion in 2004.

In what is good news for advertisers, most Yellow Pages consumers consider advertising "content," with 18 percent of those surveyed saying they want more ads in Yellow Pages directories. "Restaurants" was the No. 1 Yellow Pages heading in both print and online directories in 2005. "Physicians & Surgeons" ranked No. 2 in print; "Hotels" did online.

Heavy users of the print Yellow Pages tend to be 25-49-year-olds who are college-educated, reside in upper-income households, have large families, travel frequently and have recently moved. Internet Yellow Pages users skew toward the 18-49-year-old group.