Toilet Paper Beats Out Champagne as Personality Survey Moves toward the Millennium Moment

Toilet Paper Beats Out Champagne as Personality Survey
Moves toward the Millennium Moment

BigYellow® Online Reports "Able Mabel" Leads,
"Party Marty" Slips and "Ready Freddy"
Waits

November 4, 1999

FALLS CHURCH, VA -- Buying habits are changing as the Millennium
draws near reports Bell Atlantic's BigYellow online shopping guide
(www.bigyellow.com). Purchases of toilet paper have edged out
champagne according to BigYellow's monthly Millennium Personality
survey results. Champagne-loving "Party Marty" personalities
lost their first place spot held in September to toilet paper and peanut
butter buying "Able Mabel" personalities that took over first
place in October.

"The real drama is what will happen to the "Ready
Freddy" personalities who have held third position for two months
in a row," said Debbie Auerbach-Deutsch, Manager, Marketing
Communication, Bell Atlantic Directory Group. "Many think that
there are only so many bottles of water and candles you can buy, but
November may show a dramatic shift in buying with Ready Freddy
coming on strong."

Introduced in September and held monthly through the rest of the year, the
survey results for October are as follows: Able Mabel buying like mad at
42%, Party Marty, with a full wine cellar, slipping from number one in
September to 37%, and Ready Freddy, either anxious or quiet, still in third
at 21%.

The personality survey is part of BigYellow's Millennium Madness
section that gives information about everything from party planning and
state and local celebrations to readiness advice and daily Y2K tips. Events
and guides are even sorted according to your millennium survey
personality for easy browsing. A ticking clock gives the countdown to the
big event by the second.

BigYellow also offers visitors to the site a chance to win millennium
prizes. Every day two Y2K champagne flutes are awarded to the person
who posts the best Y2K story on the Bulletin Board. Millennium Madness
also provides links to other Web sites dedicated to celebrating the coming
new year. Beyond the millennium guide, BigYellow offers a searchable
listing of hundreds of stores and businesses.

About Bell Atlantic

Bell Atlantic Directory Group is the world's largest publisher of print and
online shopping directories, connecting buyers and sellers in the U.S. and
in China, the Czech Republic, Gibraltar, Greece, Poland, and the Slovak
Republic. It also is a leading provider of Web creation, hosting, and
shopping services, including Web@Once SM site creation services and
BigYellow?. BigYellow, combined with GTE SuperPages?, is the
leading shopping directory on the Internet and is the exclusive online
Yellow Pages service for the nearly 18 million members of the America
Online Service, AOL.com, and AOL's Digital Cities. BigYellow also is
the exclusive online Yellow Pages shopping directory for GO.com.

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and
information industry. With 43 million telephone access lines and nearly
10 million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are
premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services and market
leaders in wireless services. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the
world's largest investors in high-growth global communications markets,
with operations and investments in 23 countries.