Technology Today - Goog411
This week’s Technology Today is not a brand new service, but I just used it for the first time this week and was impressed: Goog411. Goog411 is Google’s 411 service, and it is totally free. It makes it extremely simple to find and connect to local and national businesses.
Simply dial 1-800-goog-411, state your location, state the name or category of the business you are looking for, select the business you want from a list, and Google will connect you. It is entirely voice activated and does a pretty decent job with voice recognition. I used it for the first time yesterday to get the information for a local bowling alley while I was at a crowded mall and didn’t have any troubles.
As I said, this service has been available for sometime now, but after using it yesterday, I think it definitely worth a mention.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Goog411 is good but limited to voice recognition and business listings. If you want to talk to a person or need residential or government listings, try 800-411-SAVE. I prefer talking to live agents and called looking for pharmacy. They found a local one not too far from my house … nice service and friendly operators.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:05 am
When it comes to free directory assistance (aka, “411” or “information”), you have LOTS of choices, including several that have been around since well before the Google version and others that have come out since. They differ in some important ways, so don’t call just one or two - try them all out and see which one(s) you prefer – you may just end up with more than one in your phone directory. Also, with this many companies trying to get our search attention, you may want to try them all again every so often just to see what’s new! Grin!
I prefer the ones that have operators to help when the automation doesn’t recognize me, that get me accurate information fast, and that also don’t restrict me to only business searches - sometimes I need to find people, too!
1-800-YellowPages (800-935-5697)
1-800-2ChaCha (800-224-2242)
1-800-411-SAVE (800-411-7283)
1-800-555-Tell (800-555-8355)
1-800-Call-411 (800-225-5411)
1-800-Call-Dex (800-225-5339)
1-800-Free-411 (800-373-3411)
1-800-Goog-411 (800-466-4411)
1-800-Info-Fast (800-463-6327)
1-800-The-Info (800-843-4636)