Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 5:19 PM EST

One of the most popular features we have at Phone.com is the ability to order vanity toll-free numbers for your Virtual Office service. I am willing to bet that most of you do not have a vanity license plate, but that you would definitely be interested in a vanity number for your business (unless of course you happen to be the guy that drives a pickup custom detailed with your team mascots that has a bbq welded into the bed sporting tags: NBRSKA1).

The best part of picking a vanity number is the fun you will have using our handy dial-pad tool right on the home page. Also, 800 exchanges have been expanded to include 800,888,877,866 so there are more possibilities available. Be creative or try to get your existing local area code phone number as a toll-free one so your regular customers will already remember those seven digits.

Example: if you own a bakery or a dessert business, or your last name happens to be Baker, enter **baker in the dial pad – today the number 877-39-BAKER was available. As you can imagine, creativity is key!

Here is a trivia question: when were 800 numbers invented? Well, according to Wikipedia the year was 1967 (the other toll free area codes were added in the 90’s). However back then 800 numbers were only available on a regional basis so the early customers such as Amtrak and the airlines needed dozens of 800 numbers (I found this in an old article).