goog411

Google is shutting down GOOG-411, its first attempt to create a search-by-voice application.

The company announced in a blog post today that the service will end on November 12. First launched back in 2007, GOOG-411 allowed users to say the name of a business and have the service text you back a listing for that business with address and phone number.

Google has been doing a lot of work on speech recognition since then, and has separately begun to focus almost all of its mobile efforts on modern smartphones: GOOG-411 is kind of irrelevant if you have the Internet in … Read more

Google's popular free 411 service GOOG-411 (1-800-4664-411) is now available in Canada. The toll-free directory service that uses Google results to give people phone numbers and addresses of local businesses launched in the States back in April of last year. Since then it's added an SMS maps service that will send you a link to the WAP-friendly map. The computerized operator has also since been enhanced, and now has a voice closer to the all-seeing HAL 9000 seen in Stanley Kubrick's 2001 instead of the Microsoft Sam-like one from before.

With the updated version the real … Read more

Mobile users away from their computers have had a handful of options for directory services in the past couple of years. There's TellMe (555-TELL), FREE-411, CALL-411, and GOOG-411 to name some of the free ones. There are also the official ones from each of the carriers that are billed a la carte--and usually at a high price.

This morning FREE-411 (one of the older services of the crowd) has announced a partnership with a useful driving directions service Dial DIR-ECT-IONS to help people find phone numbers and addresses for businesses or residential listings along with step-by-step directions for how … Read more

Users of Google's free 411 service (1-800-GOOG-411), can now get maps sent straight to their phone. Once you've found your listing, just say "map it" to get a text message containing the address and a link to its location on Google Maps mobile. Users also get a link to turn-by-turn driving directions.

Since writing about the service in early April, I've become a regular user. Nine times out of 10, it works like a charm, while occasionally the voice recognition can and will fail--and when it does, it's often quite amusing.

If you're … Read more

Category: Mobile

This service was introduced earlier this year as a way to access Google search results on your mobile phone. It's the equivalent of dialing 411, but it's free and really fast, and it pulls multiple listings like the ones you'd get from a search in Google local. Mobile phone users can get listings sent to their phone via SMS, including telephone numbers and full addresses. You can also be connected to a business for free.

The entire service runs off voice-recognition technology. If that fails, you can dial in the name of the business you'… Read more