Get Instant Directory Assistance via Google From the Today Screen

[Raphael Salgado]

If there's one thing I'm often asked on getting the most out of a Pocket PC Phone, it's how one can get cheap or free directory assistance. While calling 1-800-FREE-411 may help when your hands are totally occupied, there are a number of programs out on the market that are very nice, but will come with a price, such as <a href="http://www.directassist.com.au/home.shtml">GoAustralia DirectAssist</a> for $5.99AUD a month or $14.99AUD a year, <a href="http://www.handmark.com/products/detail.php?id=286">Handmark Pocket Express</a> for $69.99 a year, and <a href="http://www.acodicmobile.com">Acodic Mobile Info2Go</a> for $29.99 flat. While these programs are great and offer more features than just telephone directory lookup to make it worth their price, this quick alternative can be just what you're looking for. Read on for more...<br /><!><br /><a href="http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~jmisurda/ppc/">Jonathan Misurda's SearchToday Plugin</a> is based off the ingeniuous people at Palm who created a Google search Today plugin on the Treo 700w.<br /><br />Using the following specific search URL parameter in the SearchToday settings page, it will open up Internet Explorer Mobile and produce an extremely-clean results page from Google, <b>complete with hyperlinked telephone numbers that will actually dial out on a Pocket PC Phone</b>:http://www.google.com/xhtml?site=local&amp;q=%s<br />The "%s" at the end of the URL is the actual search string that you entered that is automatically parsed out by the SearchToday plugin.<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/salgado_google411.jpg" /> <br /><i>Figure 1. Sample output from the Google URL noted above.</i><br /><br />By entering the words as simple as "benihana philadelphia" or "chuckycheese 90210" (the zip code), you'll leave the intelligence to Google to find the right results for you.<br /><br />If you want to rid yourself of the tiny map included with the results page, simply use this string instead:http://www.google.com/xhtml?site=local&amp;dm=none&amp;q=%s<br /><br />For Treo 700w owners, you don't need to download the SearchToday plugin - I have modified the Treo's own WebSearchPlugin.dll to perform the same function (with the map). Simply download the modified DLL file <a href="http://www.beyondthetech.com/downloads/phone/hacks/WebSearchPlugin.dll">here</a>, disable the "Web Search" Today plug-in on your Treo 700w, then manually copy it into its Windows folder using a third-party File Explorer (since File Explorer itself won't show DLL files). Soft reset the device, then re-enable the modified plug-in.<br /><br />If you want to revert to the original plug-in, don't fret - it's embedded in the ROM. Just disable the plug-in again, then delete the WebSearchPlugin.dll, and the original one from the ROM will reappear in its place.<br /><br />Now you have your own, instant directory assistance, free* on your phone! (*Data connectivity and usage charges may apply, depending on your wireless carrier plan, of course).

[BevHoward]

Might also try Google SMS (see http://www.google.com/sms/howtouse.html)

Create a Contact with the phone# 46645 then simply sms any name, city, state to that contact and receive a phone# in reply...

cost depends on your plan's sms charges, but it's always less than a gprs connect in my case.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

[JonMisurda]

I just want to let people know that whenever I get a chance, I'll be updating SearchToday to allow you to save many custom search queries like this.

Things have been pretty busy for the past few months for me, but I'm hoping to have this done in the near future.

Jon

[JoshB]

Very cool, except that it doesn't work quite right with the hardware keyboard on my Verizon/Samsung i730 Pocket PC Phone.

This keyboard has the number pad overlaid on part of the keyboard, so that if I want to enter a number, I have to hit "Fn" then the key. For example, the "D" key. If I want to type "d", I just hit the key. If I want to type "5", I hit Fn then the key.

The problem is that SearchToday is acting like the Fn key is locked in the "on" position, and I'm unable to type anything but numbers with those keys.

There's no Fn Lock function on this keyboard (believe me, I wish there was!), so it's not a matter of that being stuck on.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[szamot]

for those of you juggling 2 devices or fortunate to have a Treo 650 with a true one hand operation consider using Directory Assistant by Rick Whitt. I am still amazed that something so simple and effective as that app has not been ported to PPC. So I stick with the Treo.

http://home.triad.rr.com/rlwhitt/palm/

[TTown]

I hit the link "Jonathan Misurda's SearchToday Plugin " and didn't find the file. Am I missing something?

[Robb Bates]

Any ideas on how to format the map so it's Pocket PC sized and not itty-bitty phone sized?

Robb

[BrentCrandall]

This is great -- I actually diss'ed the Google search and instead input:

http://mobile.msn.com/Search/Results.aspx?q=%s&amp;l=95129


The results are *much* better than Google -- especially for non-businesses. The default zip code is for my personal area of residence. If I need to do a search outside my immediate vicinity, I'm able to input a new location at the bottom of the results page.

Anyway, works great for me... thought I'd share.

[galt]

ttp://mobile.msn.com/Search/Results.aspx?q=%s&amp;l=95129The MS Local Live does work pretty well, I like the option to save the address asa v-card to your device as well as support for calling the number just by tapping on "call".

In case anyone here is having trouble with Google over T-mobile's GPRS (some of us are), I found that using the following web proxy to access Google via the Search Today app works well: http://demo.mobileleap.net/www.google.com/search?q=%s

[JonMisurda]

There's no Fn Lock function on this keyboard (believe me, I wish there was!), so it's not a matter of that being stuck on.

Any ideas or suggestions?

This is a known issue with devices with hard keyboards. I've not yet been able to track down whether it is the fault of my code, or whether it is an unintended side effect of enabling the keyboard on the today screen.

If anyone knows more on the cause of this issue, i'd be grateful for some insight.

Jon

[rlieving]

I have a PPC 6700, not a Treo 700m. Don't know much about the plugin - but not sure why it is needed.

I have now set my PIE home page to http://www.google.com/xhtml. If I need a phone number, I just search like regular and set the radio button to 'Local'.

There was an excellent mobile article on this site a while back that introduced the Mobile features of Google. They also have been improving the searches and adding features over the last few months.

For more, check out: http://www.google.com/mobile/

[galt]

I have a PPC 6700, not a Treo 700m. Don't know much about the plugin - but not sure why it is needed.Maybe you're rocking the EV-DO, bit for those of us crawling along on GPRS it saves a lot of time being able to get your search results in one step, with one page load.

[Petunia]

This plugin is awesome, I'd really love to use it. I can't seem to make it work, and I'm sure it's somthing basic with my settings. I normally use Opera Mini through my midlet manager to seach the internet, and it connects just fine to the internet. Can SearchToday use a jar file? For some reason my regular Internet Explorer doesn't work now, so SearchToday can't use it.

Any ideas? This is a great program, and I use my ppc for this type of thing a LOT.