The Internet Makes Me Giggle
Tonight as I was leaving work, my friend Chad, who's staying Chez BP for a week or so before he embarks on a 2 month trip to Europe, called me to tell me he'd forgotten to bring with him the address of where he was meeting someone for dinner. I couldn't recall the address myself, and asked him if he had GOOG-411, the Google Voice Local Search.
I don't know where I heard about GOOG-411, but I've had it in my phone for a while and have used it a handful of times. It's free (yay Google!) and the times I've used it, it's worked about as well as any other company's voice directories that I've used.
Chad didn't have The Goog, so I told him I'd call and get back to him.
When I was prompted for the name of the business, I said, "Otto." The first option was for Otto's Shrunkenhead (who knew?) on East 14th St. The second option: Otto Restaurant Enoteca Pizza on 5th Ave. Bingo! My choices were then to wait to be connected, or say "Details" for more info. Since I needed the address, I chose the latter and was THEN presented with the option - get ready! - to receive a text message! My brain barely managed to process the awesomeness of that option but I managed to yell "Text message!" into the phone. While I was STILL CONNECTED I received the following text:
Otto Restaurant Enoteca Pizza
212-995-9559
1 5th Ave
New York, NY 10003
http://m.google.com/u/B2hK5I
Not only did I get exactly the information that I needed, I then proceeded to forward the message to Chad so that he would have all the details right on his phone! That? Rocks.
Gentle reader, please, for me, store this number in your phone: 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411). I promise you that it will come in handy. You can thank me when it does.
P.S. According to the GOOG-411 Web site, the service is still only available in the US. Sorry, loyal Canadian readers. But you guys still have exclusive access to ketchup chips.
3 comments:
yay for interland!
For those of us who don't like to even deal with automated voices, you can text message:
[Business Name] NYC to GOOGLE (466-453), and it'll text message you immediately back a listing of all the guessed stores.
You can also text it all sorts of neat shit. Like 'd [word]' will give you the definition. '[movie name] zipcode' will give you all the theaters and times a movie is playing nearby. '[address1] to [address2]' will give you driving directions (I'm still waiting for the walking directions on this one, being a NY walker). Lastly, on the google train is '[city name] weather' to get the current weather. I think they're adding more as days go by, and you can send 'help' I think, to get a list of the services.
Also key is '[address1] [burrough1] to [address2] [burrough2]' to HPSTOP (478-67) to get subway directions. Or just type in one address and burrough to get the nearest subway stations.
I am a big fan of texting for information. I'm waiting for imdb.com to get on the bandwagon so I can settle disputes more easily.
It should also be noted that I still don't see the point of spendin a lot of money for a small, crappy screen and browser.
Oh. Also, since you often don't know what address you're at, you can obviously just type in intersections. Like '5th St & 2nd Ave'.
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