The traditional directory business is now but one of the activities, the members of EASDP are involved in. Traditional directories, printed books that list all businesses in a given area or those that specialize in certain segments of the directory market and featuring plain listings or larger advertisements, have long been joined by electronic versions and a host of other online services. In many cases, the printed versions have even disappeared. But from the very beginning, the essence of the business was search – who offers what, where?

However, the evolution of search was not only from paper to electronic directories, search has become vastly deeper and broader. Search now encompasses local and hyper-local search, with directions to the establishment found, full views of the outside and inside of the premises, latest offers, coupons, etc. And search has become social, offering the possibility to rate and review, to tell friends and to do all that even when on the move, through mobile phones.

When EADP – the European Association of Directory and Database Publishers – was founded in 1966, no-one could even imagine such changes. All the founders, both national associations and individual companies, wanted, was the opportunity to exchange ideas, to get an updated view of their industry and to be able to network. That has not changed at all and is still central to the life of the association. But as new business models and new services, such as social media, web provisioning, deals, reservations, group buying, mobile apps, etc. are dominating our sector, the Board of EADP decided in 2010 to lift EADP into the 21st century by opening the association, in addition to traditional directory and database publishers companies, to companies offering web, social and related services.

And to reflect the new, broad base of the association, its name was changed to EASDP - European Association of Search and Database Publishing, with a new tag line to explain its purpose: “We provide Europe with contacts and business information.”

EASDP, the European Association of Search and Database Publishing, got its new name in May 2012, when the General Assembly voted in favour of changing the old name of the association – EADP, European Association of Directory and Database Publishers – to EASDP - European Association of Search and Database Publishing.

The roots of the association date back to 1966, when European publishers sought to deepen intra-European contacts and cooperation, especially in the face of growing political and economic integration within the European Community. EADP became the nerve centre for year-round contact and the key representative for the industry, a role that is undiminished and that has now been taken over by EASDP. EASDP is the only international association in Europe to speak for the sector as a whole.

EASDP has some 129 members in 35 countries world-wide, including member companies based in the 27 EU member states but also in the candidate countries: search companies, social networks, publishers, suppliers of products and services for the search and publishing industries and 4 national associations representing several hundreds of publishers.

Devoted to the promotion of the directory and database publishing industry the EASDP includes in its activities:
- Publishing an up-to-date internet directory listing its members and their products.
- Editing a newsletter
- Organizing an annual congress and a separate annual conference
- Monitoring EU activities of relevance to the sector
- Making awards for quality and excellence in directory publishing

The members of the association have the right to use the logo "Member of the European Association of Search and Database Publishing", a quality label recognised in most countries. The EASDP logo on a publication offers a guarantee to the user that it has been compiled to extremely high quality standards and is in conformity with the Association's code of practice.