Slashdot Mirror
Google Launches SMS Search Service
jSpectre writes "Google's been busy introducing a lot of new things this week. The latest,
a SMS search service. SMS a message to 46645 (googl) and find
local business listings,
product prices,
dictionary definitions, and
more. Go Google!"
But it's a search VIA SMS, which makes a lot more sense.
Yes, now i can search for pictures of naked women ANYWHERE!
-ND
The latest, a SMS search service. SMS a message to 46645 (googl) and find local business listings, product prices, dictionary definitions, and more. Go Google!"
If google were 1337, their sms number would be 600613.
Can be found here.
whr can i g3t sum t13 f00d?
my pet machine
This (or something like this) may be huge as people become more dependant on their mobile phones.
No one wants to navigate some funky mobile web page looking for things like numbers, addresses or other things. People want instant information easily.
SMS is pretty easy to understand - send a message and interpet the results. No clunky (and inconsistant) navigation problems.
Heck - mobile mfg's (or OS designers) could put a search service into their phone that could utilize google's offerings automatically.
i just wonder when they will roll it out to all countries as its only a us based thing now. :)
same thing also might happen as whats happening now (occasionally) sms googl and get a repsonse from google.com.sg
http://www.thegreynomads.com
It told me to send it "help" if I needed, er, help. You might find this information useful.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm sure Google will be able to handle it. But I wonder what Verizon & co will think about the sudden spike in SMS activity?
Probably, they'll be thinking about the 12c they're getting from me for each one -- 10 for the outgoing, 2 for the incoming. Crap. Well, it's better than the $1.50 (or so) every time my wife decides to call 411. Drives me nuts when she does that...
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
My little google's finally growing up. Time to take off the training wheels.
Those poor bastards, they have us surrounded. Now we can fire at them in all directions!
Great idea, I have just sent 2 messages, I have to get anything back, I sent one to see if it could get my address for me, stupid test but hay it is a test, and I did one for the "help" since I read my sms on my palm I can just file it away for later use. If it does what it promises, I think I might use it allot. Now this is the kind of stuff we need.
Google is clearly aiming to be the information center for the connected/wired world, which makes perfect sense: after realizing that Google's value is its sheer amount of content, any service that brings people to that content is going to be pursued.
I bet, eBay and Amazon, with similar giant demographic and e-commerce content won't be too far behind (e.g. the "price check" feature is tailor made for Amazon).
Anyone know how to access this service from outside the US?
Bored? Visit my exciting counter page!
Google seems to be entering just about every area.
Maybe their idea is to make sure that they are well established in several areas in a way that they are indispensable - the best search engine, good e-mail service, business tools and what not.
That way, even if Google did risk crashing down, or if something did happen, people would like not that happening. That, and the benign image they portray, may work to their favour.
I'm talking through my hat, ofcourse.
In other news, an Anonymous Coward was found dead in his home this morning. A big slash through his chest and only a dot of the knife remained sticking out of his gut.
This is a good thing.
I just wonder how much scatter there is in the returned results.
So, google is branching out of the internet and into phones... well this certainly seems like a great idea. No one wants to spend the time to load up a web browser and web pages. This would make it alot easier to get google on phones, and this introduces google onto phones that can't get on the web, but can get sms's.
In nature, there are neither rewards or punishments, there are only consequences.
I've been playing around with SMS services for a while, since it's a great way to get information out to folks without them carrying any extra devices (everyone has cellphones now). I created a tool to send traffic reports via SMS for Californians, KnowTraffic and it'll even give you stock quotes if you send a message 'quote TICKER'. SMS is pretty powerful stuff that hasn't really been exploited much in the US yet.
-- Greg
Slashdot, would a spell-checker for posting be too much to ask? It's not rocket science!
try the help section
http://www.thegreynomads.com
I wonder how much more difficult it would be for them to set up a phone bank interfacing with the search engine using a text-to-speech program....
With Google becoming a "proper business" now I'm actually quite amazed they're not charging for this. I would.
I know it doesn't cost them much, you pay for the outgoing and incoming messages after all, but would you miss the cost of one extra message per search? Ignoring special deals, and inter-network rates, that's about 12p in the UK.
Could probably even generate a higher per search revenue stream than the ads.
Seems like a natural, and non-evil, way to make some money to me...
Google learned from Netscape's mistakes and instead of going to the government crying about MSN is constantly working on beating Microsoft to new markets in aways that tie the new markets back to Google's old original base. Knowing how competitive Google is, one would think that Microsoft, which talked about buying them out or competing directly against them, would just accept Google's existance and work with them to save money. At the rate Google is going, it'll probably be the one battle that Microsoft can't win.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
Looks like 411 just got outdated. Now I can get a phone number and address for anyone via SMS. And a text message costs what? less than 5 cents? vs a 2 dollar call to information?
People have been googling from WAP phones for years now.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
"I think it's time for Google to go evil in 3...2...1..."
1-800-555-TELL
It ain't google, but it gets you lots of useful info without thumb-boarding a bunch of TXT to get it.
sure, just type in "Ho's.x", x= your zip code!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Fr:466-45
Calculator by Google:
one kilogram =
8.98755179e+13
kiloJoules
/. effect. On the count of 1....2....3...commence phone dotting GOOGL!
I do not use my cellphone for much of anything except receiving calls and calling out. Does sending and receiving an sms cost money? If so that could add up. I mean, when I search google, sometimes I do not pick the right wording, and I get bad results, whilst other times I pick the right wording. A bad series of wording could cost me several out goings, and maybe since data has to be transmitted back, some incomings as well.
Correct me if I am wrong but this sounds like a good way nickel and dime the SMS users. Although they did send it. Oh well.
Brendan
If I use this service will the *collect* my number and start spamming me? If not now when? I really like the idea, but will they use that *you have personal business with me, so I can nag you at dinner* crap that credit card companies use to call you even though you're on the no call list.
Upset would be an understatement if I started getting spam SMS messages.
synfonic.com
They had a bit of press yesterday as well. They don't have the fancy short code yet though.
Froogle price checks are the killer app here.
Standing in the middle of a retail store, you can gauge pricing versus online retailers.
Somewhere, Alan Greenspan is smiling.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
http://www.google.com/sms/privacy.html
Information that we collect and how we use it
When you send a message to Google SMS, we log an encrypted version of the incoming phone number, the wireless carrier associated with the number, and the date and time of the transaction. We use this data to analyze the message traffic in order to operate, develop and improve our services. Google will never rent or sell your phone number to any third party, nor will we use your phone number to initiate a call or SMS message to you without your permission. Your wireless carrier and other service providers also collect data about your SMS usage, and their practices are governed by their own privacy policies.
This is awesome. Bravo.
Would be useful to mention that it works only in USA..? It doesn't work from Israel anway ;).
+1 funny, -1 old reference
I guess today is a passable day to die.
Google labs http://labs.google.com/ shows all kinds of interesting stuff Google is cooking up.
I know Google is US-based, but given the relative popularity of mobile phones (cell phones to you Americans) in Europe - especially the popularity of SMS (Almost 1 billion a month sent in the UK alone) - would it not have made sense to at least include Europe in the initial roll-out, if not focus the service there entirely?
My messages are timing out...looks like you can never escape hordes of geeks.
And even if they never charge for it, they're reinforcing the notion of Google as the search king, which keeps people coming to google.com.
I tried using that shortcode, but my phone says 'invalid address.' Wazzup?
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Is anyone tired of reading slashdot with all the google press-releases? It's been like this for a couple of days now.
;)
We need focus on another search-company to compete with google; these guys have had to spotlight for far too long!
Why are all these nerds turned into blind google zombies?
I sent the message "define hello" and got the following response in two seperate messages:
"(1of2)Glossary * Hello: Help me please Here Holy man Hot Hotel
How are you? How much is it? Ahlan Aounni affak Hna Shaikh Skhoun Hamy Funak Labass Alek"
"(2of2)Bshhall Yisswa hada"
No Joke
Is this accessible outside of the US ?
If it's a burning question ... ... well, whomever you last laid wasn't telling you the truth when he/she said "but it's all cleared up now!"
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
I think the revenue stream is pretty clear
It's a "short number", therefore they already have a deal worked out with the telcos. I dunno, maybe their outgoing messages are free, the telco collects the 4.95 cents per message from you with your "10021 Burrito" request, and Google collects 0.05 cents from the telco?
Obviously this service is driving up SMS usage making all mobile cos very happy, I'm sure happy enough to give Google a cut of each one sent.
when is it gonna be available outside the states?
Temet Nosce
...or will they just become fastest googler contests?
Woah. I'll be using this one...
-Ben
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
What do you think the odds are of some cell phones makers starting to introduce a simplified interface for this? That might be a possibility for Google to make some money, partnering with makers to slap the Goole trademark on their phones. Normally someone might have to pay to put their label or trademark on someone else's product, but with Google's name-brand recognition...
AirFlash and Viag Interkom did this in 2001 ... and Orange UK did it in May. Perhaps the technology is finally Ready for Prime Time?
google pleeeeeease launch an actual sms sending service! most services out there are absolutely crap, o2's paid service for example (consider that they are a pretty large phone company) is so shockingly bad that i just smashed my house phone to bits in absolute rage after trying to use it - its almost like they designed it just to piss people off! Tiscali has a free service but they can't even manage the most basic interface design. Others are so bloated and adverty that it takes several minutes to send a message that would have taken several seconds on an instant messenger. Google could wipe the market clean all around the world. Text messaging is a really pathetically crap restricted format but sometimes you have to use it and have no choice, google please make my life easier, i'll pay you.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
If Google makes SMS really popular the SMS specification better have a way to deter spamming. The last thing I want is to have to apply a spam filter to my incoming SMS messages on my cell phone.
Even just a little? I clicked over to the Google site to read about it, and the samples and screen shots of addresses were troubling. It seems like there would be a lot of opportunity to use this power of instant-knowledge-about-anyone for evil as opposed to good. Granted, I know that you could perform the same query at home. But, I'm more worried about the "heat of the moment" type decisions that would lead someone to want a person's address immediately.
This would be nice if my cell phone company let me send the message. Alltel sent me a message back saying i have to use a 10 digit number.
Can't wait till they get real time flight information into it. Nothing like being able to SMS "COA123" and get the flight's location and ETA based on what's coming in from the FAA data feeds.
What if I live in Australia - is it possible to message a US short code like an international number? (ie. if I SMS +146645? something tells me that wouldn't work...)
Admittedly, it would be much less useful without the business and address searches ... but the definitions and calculator would still be handy...it would be nice if they'd provide a way for international users to play too ;p
"Why are you watching the washing machine?"
"I love entertainment, as long as it's clean"
Does Google SMS work everywhere? Can I find pizza restaurants in Palermo?
Right now, Google SMS only works in the U.S. We're working hard to make it available when and wherever you're on the go. In the meantime, how about a little slice of heaven in Little Italy? (try 'pizza 10013')
University of Kansas.
LOL.
I noticed that I got no result replies on my Verizon phone when I searched for "pizza 60603". I called Verizon and spoke with a lead SMS/data tech to ask why it didn't work. They said that they do not support this and that they would not unless they entered into some sort of formal contract with Google. My big question is: what does it take for Verizon to actually give something useful to its users for no extra charge?!
hold down '4' and it will enter a '4' instead of having to cycle through all of the letters on the 4 key.
I typed in "pizza 48201" to find the Domino's around the corner here in Detroit. It gave me three results in WINDSOR, ONTARIO, CANADA.
I wonder if they deliver...
Look up some stock quotes. GOOG is up about 40% since it started trading publicly. Professional traders made such a fuss trying to cool down interest in the stock when it appeared.
And they'll name it "SMoogleS" ... *evil laughter*
--- root@127.0.0.1
Ok its cool but how many people use SMS in US? Come to South East Asia and you would know what SMS is all about. When I am in local train or bus, not a minute goes by without a SMS being sent or received. Google where are thou?
i was working for an sms company this past january-march. it was a pretty bunk company (i.e. i never got paid and am still awaiting a hearing to try to get money from this loser). i setup a couple GSM modems and wrote PHP code to run there SMS Marketing web application. I also wrote some scripts to do Google searches via SMS through the GSM modems. i'm probably the only person ever to use it, but it was very useful...i'm glad to see Google did the same thing, albeit, a little more advanced searching capability. i have a treo 600 so returning links would be nice. also, there are no results for a lot of queries.
I just sent "pizza.80203" to 46645 and I received the google results as two text message replies. I have a Motorola v60 phone with Verizon service. Maybe there's something weird with your phone?
I hope google adds more features to this service.
Seems like an obvious crossover to me... Google could combine this kind of SMS service with the search alerting concept to provide regular alerts of information that would be useful on a cellphone - price reductions, new shops opening - and I'm sure later on there will be traffic, weather, etc...
Why would you want to feed your tie? :)
Is it alive now, threatening to strangle you?
This is close, but I think still no one has implemented the service I was proposing a couple of years ago - a SMS dictionary service.
Imagine: you're sitting reading in a park, want a good definition of a word so you type it into your phone and get back instantly the OED definition.
Call me a geek, but I'd pay for that...
Google really does a lot of things now. And many of them have the chance of becoming as essential as their web searching feature and perhaps their ad business already is.
Google does web searching, advertising, usenet portal, web boards, webmail, price listings, news aggregation, searching within books, within white pages, within maps, and various other sources, paid web searching, blogging, a dictionary and a calculator and now SMS access to some of their services - I'm sure that if this takes off, access to many more will follow. It also does the whole thing in multiple countries, ie. I just got the mapping service that used to be exclusive to Canada and the US (I think) here in Germany, along with train schedule information.
And the weird thing is, as far as I can see they are as good or better at every single of those services as any other service provider specialising on it. One of the reasons for that is the fact that they're smart about it: apart from some core services, they don't try to replace existing services but rather sticks to being a portal easing access to the information.
So when looking for maps of an area, you get multiple links to prominent mapping services showing just that area. And instead of creating a whole new train schedule for Germany, they just translate your query to one for the (very good) official service of the train company. The key difference being that I already have quick access to Google, and that I can use a written query to get the information instead of using a form. In a way, Google is the renaisance of the CLI over GUIs.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Does anyone already do this? It sounds like a winning little service.
I know conceptually the SMS network is sort of like a little Internet. There are SMSC's that carriers connect to, and all the SMSC's exchange routing information with the carriers about what phone numbers are in what status, and so on.
But say I wanted to get my own SMS number.. in whatever form, I dont care if it's NPANXX#### or something custom.. but I want to be able to take in and send out messages to the SMS network, and I dont want to do it via stupid SMTP relays and such.
What sort of companies do things like this?
This is pretty OT; direct email replies would be great, and I'll provide summaries to anyone requesting such (sun-managers style) :)
The e-alemay consists of the word (mitigator) (no parenthesis of course) then at-sign followed by the domain gmail and TLD .com.
Not working for me, sigh /. effect already?
Just another reason for me to never use another search engine again (not that I have in over 2 or 3 years anyway). Several times I've been on the road and thought "If I could just get to a local computer a do a quick google search"...and even though I can use my phone to "surf" the web (if you can even call it surfing) it's pricey and the interface sucks. Now I can just SMS it to google!!! Ugh! I love google!!!
Though it's free now(only normal sms charges) ..google may eventually charge a fee per sms through your cellular provider. Easily, that could bring in a lot more money for them.
For every innovation Google comes up with they must have a core economic reason for doing it. 1.) Do they see the cellular carriers as a big customer for targeted advertising? 2.) Why do they need to build a large database of cellular phone numbers and active customers? Are they seeding the market? 3.) What is the tie in with gmail? Sure, I tried the service and it works, works nicely but after about six tries I realized that I just gave Google my cellular number and a whole bunch of other "information" about me and my habits. Careful what you give away in return for something useful and *free*.
Another company called Synfonic launched their SMS search service a day ahead of Google. Website at www.synfonic.com. Heck, it even made SearchEngineWatch and Yahoo Finance:
4 4m l
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/041007-2
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041006/sfw010_1.ht
So does it matter that Google was not the first to do this?