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GOOG-411's "Biddy-Biddy-Boop" Sound Backstory
Chris Albrecht writes "The bippedy-bippedy-bippedy sound you hear when using 1-800-GOOG-411 is actually a senior voice designer at Google. (Here's the sound.) The technical term for that noise is the 'fetch audio,' and it's more complicated to design than you'd think. For the first time, the voice of GOOG-411 talks about how he came up with it, how important that sound is, and how people now ask him to 'perform' it."
Is that you?
that gives me flashbacks to the .com bubble days.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
What, is this article a joke? I hear no such sound when I call 1-800-GOOG-411. I even went through a complete (and unfortunately fruitless) search for a Mongolian barbecue in Atlanta.
Well I speak Swedish and all I can say is that is one big potty mouth he's got there.
No wonder his sister got bitten by a moose.
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
If you are also not American, or just haven't hear of it, Wikipedia article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOOG-411
Basically, GOOG-411 is an experimental Google telephone service. Users can call and use speech regocnition to do local business search. I think American phones have letters on the number buttons, so 1-800-GOOG-411 means 1-800-466-4411.
this is what $600 a share gets you...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
If you slow it down, or play it backwards (or both) is there is hidden message?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I know the odds of finding a pay phone nowdays are slim but does this allow you to make a free phone call or does the phone ask for money when the goog-411 transfer occurs?
... I'd be changing carriers.
Google - we expect much better from $600/share.
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
Wouldn't it have been easier to have just made that sound by audio recording a dying cat?
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
It doesn't allow you to make a free phone call, it is a free alternative to the 411 service that the phone companies change you ($1.50 per call on Alltel). I put it on my speed dial just now and gonna start using it. Tried several numbers to see if I could hear the sound, but the response to my query was instantaneous and thus heard no sound....
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
It is quiet, but possibly the problem is that your Mac defaults to a rather low sound level out of the speakers. My G4 certainly did, and even listening to music was annoying because it was so quiet, even with the audio turned up full.
The fix is of course simple and entirely intuitive, as are all things on a Mac.
a) open iTunes
b) In the Window menu, choose Equalizer
c) Crank the Pre-amp setting to 12
Now all of the audio on your Mac will not only be loud enough to hear, it will be louder than the same audio on a PC, which can only be turned up 10
Three Squirrels
To me it sounds more like "giggety giggety."
The revealing backstory about the Googleplex's custom-made toilet paper. The technical term is actual 'bathroom tissue', and it's more complicated to design than you'd think. For the first time, Sergey Brin discusses the choices of materials and the unparalleled softness, and how often he gets thanked by Google employees after they wipe their asses.
The GP was commenting on the fact that once you find the record you want, Google asks if you want to be connected to that number. How do payphones deal with this?
advertising hidden as a news article. Gee, tanks editors.
-=[ place
I'm fairly sure others will join me in asking: What is GOOG-411'?
Why do they have a "Biddy-Biddy-Boop" Sound?
Why would I want to know the Backstory?
How is this in any way important, newsworthy, or even interesting?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
YouTube video
Dark Helmet: Now what is it?
Radar Technician: I'm having trouble with the radar, sir.
Dark Helmet: What's wrong with it?
Radar Technician: I've lost the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps.
Dark Helmet: The what?
Colonel Sandurz: The what?
Dark Helmet: And the what?
Radar Technician: You know. The bleeps. [makes bleep sound effect]
Radar Technician: The sweeps. [makes sweep sound]
Radar Technician: And the creeps. [makes creep sound]
Dark Helmet: [to Colonel Sandurz] That's not all he's lost.
c) Crank the Pre-amp setting to 12
Somehow, "This one goes to twelve," doesn't have quite the same ring as, "This one goes to eleven."
If you call up GOOG-411 for free (compared to the ripoff that is cell phone carriers 411 at $1.75 a pop), it always asks you for the city and state first. Sometimes the city and state are easy to parse, like "Reno" or "Keokuk". Sometimes it's not, like "Glen Ellyn, Illinois" (and the other one I've tried, Glenallen, Alaska). If you mumble, your voice is otherwise hard to parse, or the city is obscure, GOOG-411 will take about 3 seconds to figure what the hell you're saying, which is when it'll play this sound.
Same thing with the business name - if you say something like "Restaurant", that's easily parsed, but if you say something specific like "Bed Bath and Beyond", it could take up to 3 seconds to parse, search for, and find your match. You'll hear the sound, and then the list of results.
I don't know why the Johnny Carson theme (or similar) could have sufficed, because the sounded reminded me of logging onto AOL at 56.6 Kbps. Or make up a Google Jingle or something.
I use GOOG-411 at least once a week nowadays, and the feature to text message you details of what you're looking for has proven (mostly) invaluable while I've used it. There's the problem that sometimes, Google's information on businesses just isn't up to date. But that's a Google-wide issue.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
Well, this sound suspiciously sounds like a re-work of old sound Tell Me systems play while trying to decipher what the beep user tried to say. Just try to call 1-800-555-TELL (1-800-555-8355) and play with the menu.
:) Even though they were before Google in voice stuff :)
That sound is also a sure sign that you're dealing with Tell Me designed system -- for example Fandango uses their back-end, some banks and some other interactive voice systems.
Of course Tell Me was bought by Microsoft so now it's inevitably evil
Hyperom.com
I'm not 100% certain how pay phones deal with it but you might want to check out the current 2600 Magazine as they have a writeup there on using it creatively.
0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
There isn't one.
And having taken the time to read the story and listen to the sound, it's fair to say how pointless it is.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
The article is well written but has this annoyingly casual tone like "of course you know what this super-famous ubiquitous sound is and obviously, as someone 'in the know,' you care about its origins." No. In fact, I have no freaking idea what you are talking about. This makes me wonder if it isn't an attempt at a viral marketing scheme. Sadly, now when I finally do hear the otherwise amusing little sound (which would be much more amusing if I had no idea where it came from), I'll only think "this is a self-important hyper-over-engineered sound that was too self-consciously created for it's purpose."
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
>>Every time you call an IVR or reach an automated speech system, someone's worked at it to make it not just functional, but also usable and friendly.
Well, except for the system used by the Cable TV, credit card, bank, telco, computer tech support, university admissions, etc. company. 'Cause those systems seem like they're designed with the sole purpose of making it as difficult as possible to actually speak to a human being. The end result is I'm typically about as happy as Alanis Morissette on a blind date by the time I get to speak to someone with a funny accent who knows even less than I do about the subject matter.
I try to maintain pristine language, really I do, but on a really bad day I had to talk to Sprint customer service and the automated voice system really started to get on my nerves the second or third time I had to talk to it and I let slip a few choice non-G-rated phrases. I was transferred to a person faster than any other method I'd tried before or come up with since.
Back in my day when we chiseled our bits into stone and sent them by mule train from village to village...
Somehow, "This one goes to twelve," doesn't have quite the same ring as, "This one goes to eleven." Ah, but this is slashdot. He was using base 9.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.