Google Goes SMS

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=971&ss=tps' target='_blank'>http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=971&ss=tps</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Google today launched Google SMS, a free information service that provides several types of information in response to special queries sent via text message. The service includes business and residential phone and address listings, product pricing, and word definitions. Other features include limited Google web search results, a natural-language calculator and unit converter tool, and zip- and area-code lookups. The service is available now in the U.S., and is free aside from normal carrier charges for text messaging. Queries are sent to 46645 (GOOGL), and replies should arrive via SMS within a minute. The company plans to add additional query types in the future."</i><br /><br />I always expect new and innovative things from Google, and they haven't failed me yet. It appears to work with Froogle, Business listings, Residential listings, Definitions, and more! You can check it out <a href="http://www.google.com/sms/">here</a> I'll be playing with it over the course of the day, and will report back to everyone on it's performance. :D

[Santa Fe]

The few times I've tried it have resulted in instant and accurate replies. Could be very helpful for the traveler or to win bar bets....

[Mike Temporale]

I'm unable to send a SMS to it. Guess it's only for US customers right now. :(

[possmann]

Cool concept and I can see using this quite often.

now all I need to do is wait for a smartphone to get released in the US - LOL

[Mike Temporale]

on a semi-related news front (related to google, not mobile phones :wink: ) check out this news (http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158624).

Internet search engine Google has announced Google Print, a new book search service at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Google has already secured deals with major publishers, including Oxford University Press.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced the new service at the Book Fair. Reports from the Fair state that Blackwell, Oxford University Press, Wiley, Taylor & Francis and Penguin are amongst the publishers to have signed up to Google Print.

"We're trying to make offline information like books searchable and available online," director of product management Susan Wojcicki told the Telegraph newspaper. Google has no intentions of becoming a book retailer, Google Print allows users to search books by key words. Each publisher that joins the scheme will choose how much of its texts are available online to searchers.

Publishers will send their texts to Google for scanning and indexing. Oxford University Press recently told IWR that it has been sending texts to Google for digitisation at no cost to the publisher. "Publishers will be able to attract new readers and increase book sales," Wojcicki told the Guardian


Go Google, Go!

[Kris Kumar]

I will not call it innovative because believe it or not Oracle had something similar 3 years ago. I remember when I used to carry a BlackBerry, I used to send emails to ask at oraclemobile dot com (http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/397851) with varying subject lines for news, weather etc.

But must agree that Google providing this service will make it cool and hence popular. Unlike the OracleMobile which seems to have disappeared.

I havent gotten responses to the two SMSs I sent out "define me" and "price mpx220". It's been over 15 minutes. :-(

[Kris Kumar]

I'm unable to send a SMS to it. Guess it's only for US customers right now. :(

http://www.google.com/sms/faq.html#using4

:-(