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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!"
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.
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'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.
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).
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.
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!
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..."
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.
One thing that's missing is the ability to find where you are. So you actually have to tell it your address. However, the phone company obviously knows where you are, and I personally wouldn't mind if it communicated this information to Google upon my request.
For those concerned about privacy, I'd simply make it opt-in, i.e. phone company messages you the first time you do this, and asks to reply if you want to enable Google/some other guy (identified by their phone number) to see this information.
The phone company then always attaches your address when you message this number.
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
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.
...the press piece.
Google labs http://labs.google.com/ shows all kinds of interesting stuff Google is cooking up.
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 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
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
In the UK some phone companies already do this as part of their basic service.
You go to the WAP screen, select 'food','pizza' and you get a list of all the pizza places nearby.
I've used it for taxis, ATMs, etc. it's really handy.
...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...
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.
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')
Without triangulation of the signal (which is alot more manual in real life than TV makes it out to be), you can only get a result from knowing what base you're connected to, which is so inaccurate it's hardly a privacy issue.
(In most residential areas around where I live, you'd get like 5km accuracy... but I've seen it be about 40km away*!).
* It was a clear sunny day, the phone managed to get line-of-sight 50km across water to another base which just barely managed to be stronger than one on the other side of the hill we were on).
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?!
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...
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...
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.
So how much are 6500 SMS messages going to cost you?
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
Does anyone already do this? It sounds like a winning little service.