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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!"
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!
SMS is so 1990s for the rest of the world, I guess that's why this in North America only, where its still a gee-whiz thing. I've been using google from my phone for at least 4 years now. A few kB of GPRS is far cheaper than a couple of SMS messages too.
Not sure how the charging structure works in the USA, but most GSM networks in the world charge a fixed termination fee for an SMS message entering their network (all UK networks have agreed on 3p, which is why you can't get a better rate (or if you can, it'll be a loss leader).
With high traffic numbers, you can usually arrange a profit sharing deal with the provider of your services, so if Google's smart (and they are) they'll figure out a way to take a cut of the revenue. That's how the UK's "free" ISPs took off - Freeserve and the like simply said "we will generate X million minutes of phone calls a month, who'll give us a cut".
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.
...the press piece.
Google labs http://labs.google.com/ shows all kinds of interesting stuff Google is cooking up.
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.
At $3 for each 300 msgs (I'm assuming this isn't only for the first 300), you could buy 900 for $9. So does the fact that you are instead spending $10 for unlimited messages really mean that you're going to use more than 900 a month?! That's 30 a day. There are people who really use that much?
I'd rather be lucky than good.
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')
hold down '4' and it will enter a '4' instead of having to cycle through all of the letters on the 4 key.
I use a nifty Sony Ericsson P800. It has a very usable (for a phone) handwriting recognition system.
My friends ask why I use mixed case and punctuation in my text messages. The truth is it's just the most natural and easy way to enter them on the P800. You never even use the number keys.
I sent about two dozen queries to Google SMS today, trying everything out. This is not a chore with such a nice text-entry system.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
SMS shortcodes are only valid on certain networks - the ones you pay for usually. For example, here in the UK it costs around £150 per month per network for a dedicated shortcode. If you were only interested in targeting customers on one particular network you would only pay for a shortcode on that network. So, outside the US this is unlikely to work as Google won't have activated their code on any networks other than those in the US. It's not like you can +44 (or whatever) a shortcode to access it internationally.
You can triangulate automatically, based on signal strength of the various bases you're connected to. Vodafone here does that as a GPRS service of vehicle fleets. The accuracy is at least enough to identify the street you're in, so its definitely better than 5km.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you