GTE's SuperPages interactive directory service introduces new look and feel, enhanced driving directions, consumer information and Lycos City Guide

DALLAS - GTE's SuperPages  interactive directory service (http://superpages.GTE.net) now features a new look and feel, helping users better navigate the site. The service now offers driving instructions, as an enhancement to its mapping features, with precise directions for getting users to businesses they are interested in, and as part of a joint agreement with Lycos Web Search (http://www.lycos.com), the Lycos City Guide, which features more than 7,500 Web sites from over 400 U.S. cities. In addition, a comprehensive consumer guide that helps users find products and services is in beta testing.

"The new design is in direct response to what the users have asked for," said Patrick Marshall, vice president of New Media Services for GTE Directories. "With the addition of the consumer guide, driving instructions and the Lycos City Guide, SuperPages has become a truly comprehensive one-stop shopping service thats very easy to use."

Global icons, which represent the major services available from SuperPages, such as Yellow Pages and classified ads, are now at the top of every screen, while service-specific icons, representing commands such as "Help" and "Add/Change Your Listing" in the Yellow Pages, are in the margins.

A blue tab located at the top left corner of every screen gives users an immediate shortcut back to the home page from wherever they are on the site. The new design will better enable users to move between the services that interest them, assist them with their shopping and find their way back to where they started.

The Yellow Pages search form has also been redesigned to be more flexible and easier to use. More compact and concise, but just as powerful, the form lets users search for businesses by a variety of keywords, including business name, category, street address, area code, city and state.

The interactive directory offers both detailed driving instructions and a concise, highlighted map designed to get users where they want to go, either by the quickest route or fewest miles. Users can then use their Web browser to print the turn-by-turn instructions and map.

Also added to the SuperPages site is ConsumerGuide Interactive, a comprehensive consumer product information service featuring ratings, reviews and recommendations on hundreds of products. Offered in association with Publications International, Ltd., ConsumerGuide Interactive will grow to include auto and computer information in early 1997 as well as integrated classified ads.

The Lycos City Guide, long a favorite of Lycos Web Search users, lets the consumer select locations on a map of the United States and search for Web sites, specific people or companies, and other related links on a city- or area-specific level using a variety of different criteria including subject and category. Visitors to the City Guide can also search for photos and recordings related to a specific city or state, further enhancing the multimedia capabilities of the site.

"These exciting new features and services help SuperPages users find businesses and products that interest them," said Marshall. "Consumers now have another way to access and explore the world around them and gain new information and insights through our Web site."

The new design, along with the interactive mapping abilities, comprehensive consumer information and Lycos City Guide help make GTE's SuperPages site an invaluable aid for Internet consumers who want to get the most out of the time they spend online.

SuperPages interactive directory is a service of GTE Directories Corporation, one of the world's largest telephone directory companies, annually publishing or providing sales, consulting and other services relating to 2,400 directory titles throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Asia, and Latin America, with a circulation of 80 million. GTE Directories is a part of GTE Corporation, Stamford, Conn., one of the largest publicly held telecommunications companies in the world.