Thursday, January 03, 2008

Free 411

I have grown tired of having my cell phone, but not having the right phone number. You can call information, but they charge you way too much. Here is a free alternative from our friends at Google. It was announced about 8 months ago, but I missed it. Apologies if you have already seen it. I went ahead and programmed the number into my cell phone.



Apparently the beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks have been bubbling over at Google labs lately as its group of lab fiends have brought us yet another fun trick in a long stream of goodies, "GOOG-411," or voice local search. Bringing Google's powerful search mojo into yet another realm (they are, after all, bent on world domination), the free service enables voice-prompted search of local businesses and will SMS you the results and even connect your call. Various mobile and landline companies already have this feature -- including the SMSed results -- but will typically charge you for the privilege. We love when Google gets its lab coat on and brings goodies like this to us; we just hope to see it extend to home numbers, other languages, and of course other countries. Just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any handset to give it a go.

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