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My Line Lets Colombians Call Google Assistant (venturebeat.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: At one time, Google Assistant could only be found on a handful of smartphones. Today, Google Assistant is available on 500 million devices -- smartphones, smart speakers, smart watches, tablets, smart televisions, and a broad range of home appliances and cars. But what about the billions of people in the world who still don't have a smartphone? Enter My Line, a phone number you can call to ask Google Assistant questions in parts of Colombia -- without a smartphone or computer or even the internet. When a person calls 6000913, they receive a welcome greeting and invitation to ask any question. After posing a question, users may hear prompts like "Do you have more questions?" or "Feel free to hang up whenever you're done," Cainkade Studio CEO Jeremy Landis told VentureBeat in a phone interview.

42 comments

  1. Riddle me this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google, how hard is my dick?

    1. Re:Riddle me this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google, how hard is my dick?

      Rock hard but is put to shame by a toothpick in length and girth.

  2. What about my anus? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does that let you call the proctologist?

  3. I can see it now by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    It's the 1950s all over again.

    "Hello, My Line, do you have Prince Albert in a can?"
    "Hello, My Line, is your refrigerator running?"

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:I can see it now by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      "Hello, My Line, do you have Prince Albert in a can?" "Hello, My Line, is your refrigerator running?"

      It is probably a premium service toll number . . . so the joke will be on the caller, who gets stuck with the bill.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:I can see it now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it’s like a phone sex line?

  4. White Powder != White Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watch out for that pronunciation when trying to offload your national product.

  5. But how can you get rid of it? by yorgasor · · Score: 2

    And here I was today just googling how to get rid of the !@#$ assistant from my smart phone. Or at least get to to answer when I say, "Hey, Wiretap!"

    --
    Looking for a computer support specialist for your small business? Check out
    1. Re:But how can you get rid of it? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Just don't buy their product.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:But how can you get rid of it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And here I was today just googling how to get rid of the !@#$ assistant from my smart phone. Or at least get to to answer when I say, "Hey, Wiretap!"

      I just disabled all the shortcuts to it.
      Problem solved.

      Or, you could just install a rom without the gapps.

    3. Re:But how can you get rid of it? by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      Welcome to Russian vocabulary school!

      Chortle == To laugh.

      Perhaps you conflated "choke on" with "juggle?"

    4. Re:But how can you get rid of it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    5. Re:But how can you get rid of it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    6. Re:But how can you get rid of it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    7. Re:But how can you get rid of it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kiss.

      My piss.

      YOU HEARD ME! Kiss my piss!

  6. Re:My question... by jgordon510 · · Score: 2

    Hey AC? Who are you that you post off-topic political stuff on literally every forum I read no matter what is being discussed? Why do you do it? Is it entertaining? We get it. You love Conservatism. Do you think you maybe need a hobby? Like hacky sack, or model airplanes?

  7. Good initiative Google by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nothing like a good line of Colombian.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  8. Goog 411 by saccade.com · · Score: 1
    This sounds like a somewhat improved version of GOOG-411

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    The service was really handy in the flip-phone days, and allowed Google to collect a massive training set for their voice recognition work.

    1. Re: Goog 411 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is just a temporary data gathering program just like Goog411. As soon as they can start manipulating people with this data they will shut it down just like Goog411.

  9. text google instead by dj245 · · Score: 1

    As far as I know, you can still text google (466453) on a dumb phone (or smartphone) with a query, and it will respond. I used it back in the RAZR days.

    --
    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  10. So, a poor 21st C version of a 20th C solution by gordguide · · Score: 1

    Maybe some people here lived in the third world, or the educational / public service equivalent in the first world, but all my life ... we're talking back to High School in the early 1970's ... you could call "Information Services" at my local public library and get a real, live librarian answer any question ... and I mean ANY question ... usually within about two minutes. Sometimes they would ask for your number to call you back. Never waited more than a half hour in my life. Made a lot of money on bets that way, mind you.

    Come the 21st century, Information Services still survives where I live. If Google Assistant (or any other online assistant, for that matter) has the right answer, they will check it. But, often enough, they are wrong and the real, live librarian gets you the right answer instead. How about where you live?

    1. Re:So, a poor 21st C version of a 20th C solution by hjf · · Score: 1

      That's a US only thing. This never existed pretty much everywhere else in the world.

    2. Re:So, a poor 21st C version of a 20th C solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one cares about your shithole country. #MAGA bitches!!!

  11. En espanol? by mcswell · · Score: 1

    "users may hear prompts like "Do you have more questions?"" Ojala que diga, 'Tiene mas preguntas?'

    (And to anyone who knows how to use accents and tildes in Spanish, or about inverted question marks: Sorry, this is /.)

  12. fuck google by hjf · · Score: 0

    Fuck google and this stupid shit. What kind of joke is this? The non-english speaking world has been asking for their own NSA wiretap for a long time now. But elitist Assistant, Alexa and Siri only speak english.

    Also Google Home, outside the US, pretty much only lets you set up Chromecast. Everything else is hidden from the menu. I have some smart relays and Hue lights which I can't control with Google Home because google decided that my language doesn't deserve to control google home. Of course, everyone knows only maids speak spanish and maids are a lower caste that shouldn't even DARE talk to google.

    Same shit with Alexa. Alexa speaks german though! A beautiful blue-eyed blonde people language. A true superior race language. Not like that dirty low class spanish.

    Fuck all tech companies.

    Well, except netflix. The ones who decided Latin America was a market worth serving. And it paid. EVERYONE down here has netflix.

    Take a fucking hint, google and amazon.

  13. Unavailable by Saija · · Score: 1

    I just tried(Yes, Colombian here) and a nice female voice said:"Hola, lo sentimos en este momento mi linea no puede ayudarte", something like "Hi, we are sorry but my line can't help you"

    --
    Slashdot ya no es que lo era! ;)
    1. Re:Unavailable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What? TFS summary lied!
      This thingy DOESN'T speak english only?? What about the cultural imperialism??!

  14. Re:My question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Browse at +1 or 2

  15. Which problem does this solve ? by vikingpower · · Score: 1

    Really.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    1. Re:Which problem does this solve ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google now has access to Columbians without smartphones. Google is an advertising company that makes its money be selling access to audiences based on a wide variety of data points. But billions of people without smartphones or Internet access are essentially unknown to Google. By making their services available to folks without smartphones, Google gains insight into the questions and concerns of these groups and it better able to target them for their real customers.

  16. Libeling me JustAnotherOldDouche? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See my subject & you LOSE LIBELING me w/ LIES saying I molest kids? https://meta.slashdot.org/comm...

    * I DO NO SUCH THING nor have I EVER motherfucker.

    (You had BEST stay behind that FAKE NAME for your FAKE LIFE, fucker... 'cuz I'd END YOU for it!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Tell you what - Come say that to my FACE you scumbag FAKE NAME for your FAKE LIFE fuck - I will f'ing HOSPITALIZE you motherfucker - oh, that's right - YOU WOULDN'T LAST TIME I SAID THIS TO YOU, you dirty little fuck... apk

  17. LOL! MOMMY HELP ME (golden wine)... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hohohohoho see the CLASSIC proof of that here soyboys as you DRINK the golden wine https://it.slashdot.org/commen... straight from MY tap (of GOLDEN piss), all natural ingredients, naturally filtered (of ME pissing right into your shitbag mouths & funniest part is, you help me DO it - you LIKE it, lol!).

    Do you LIKE the taste? Obviously yes - just like folks like my hosts engine, anything I put out, even piss, is GOOD (unlike "your kind").

    Above all else though? Hey - MOMMY LOVES YOU!

    APK

    P.S.=> Hahahahaha (I think this is the BEST overall letting you SHEMALE soyboys destroy yourselves for GOLD (ask SuckerBERG about that - he's the expert as is all his kind are - heading into ZylonB & Furnace time again judging by what's happening - the PRICE of it is that, always, they don't learn)... apk

  18. Is it just me? by DarkRookie · · Score: 1

    This doesn't work on my phone at all.
    Is it just me?

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.