I just did two identical searches in google.com and yp.com, and the results I got on yp were entirely different than those on google, and more numerous.

yp.com has a ton of listings directly submitted to them. They may use Google as one of many data sources, but they're by no means the original source.

This is one way YP.com is transitioning to more online marketing. They have started to bundle their yp.com offerings with their print offerings.

If you buy a print ad, you can get a cut on the .com ad and placement depending on how much you're spending. I also noticed yp.com has the first 8-10 listings are paid ads, which go right below the fold. If you don't scroll down, you'd never notice the non-paid listings.

It's pretty sketchy to me, but I guess they're doing what they have to in order to survive

That's actually the opposite direction of where they're moving. yp.com has little, if any, relation to the print business.

Which yellow pages where? Yellow pages isn't a specific company; it's a kind of floating trademark that exists in different ways in different countries and regions. My comment was specifically about yellowpages.ca that I have here in Canada.

> Why not skip the cruft and go right to the original source?

That depends on whether the compiling that you're skipping provides value. Why skip the gas station cruft and refine your own crude oil to make gasoline? Hey, no road tax!

Aside, that's not true, in many jurisdictions. US tax authorities chase down and collect money from biodiesel users who don't pay the fueltax.

How do they do that? It seems you would have to ask all vehicle owners to submit their fuel receipts and odometer readings.

That might be an apt description of 3rd tier clickbait 'yellowpages' sites. But the more prominent ones spend large sums of money buying and aggregating data feeds.