Google launchs its free telephone "Goog-411" today
1 Comments Published by Brian W. Barringer on Saturday, April 07, 2007 at 10:22 AM.
Today this morning life got a little more Google today, as if Google has not gotten into my life enough already. Google lab has launched a free 411 information service.The new service is simple, what you do is call a 1-800 number and, via voice recognition software, you can get connected to the person or business you are looking for. The service’s website says that the service is essentially an experimental service developed to make it easier for the user to get access to local-business information.
The product competes head on with Jingle Networks(1-800-FREE411), which has taken 6% market share in the U.S. 411 business over the last year. AT&T is also experimenting with free 411 calls.
I bet that this new service is going to be a big hit as long as its easy to use and also the ads are not too annoying. I am looking forward to trying this out. Below is a breakdown of how to use it. Program this number into your cell and use, its free!
Here's an MP3 recording of what a call to this service is like. (It's not my call, I just found this link.)http://xar.ph/goog411-buffalo.mp3
Here is the lowdown directly from google labs:
Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone. To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone. Using this service, you can:
- Search for a local business by name or category.
- You can say "Giovanni's Pizzeria" or just "pizza".
Get connected to the business, free of charge. - Get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
Just say "text message".
When you are asked for city and state, you can: - say the city and state
- say the zip
- type the zip code
I found this quote from Digg.com member AdebisiTheGamer:
I welcome our Google overlords. Google is the first corporation I have ever dealt with that I look forward to dealing with. I use Google for my email, my web hosting, my maps, my searchs, my blog, my newsgroup reader, my documents, my calander, and my news feeds. Everytime I use something from Google I keep on using it because it works great. And none of it costs me any money at all!!! And people get upset because Google sells ads? I wish Google made cars, cell phones, houses, toilets, stereos and computers, because I would buy them. Google has done more for me personally, then nearly any other company I can think of, and none of it has cost me a penny. Google, keep it up.
Give this new finagled technology a try, you might like it.
Brian Barringer
I caught this link because I have a google alert set up for pizza tracy, ca. I checked goog411, and my place comes up in the first set of results, I am number 6. Woohoo!
JimF
Tracy Pizza Factory