Google SMS

For my inaugural post, I thought I'd talk about Google's free SMS service. It's actually been around for a while, but I'm always surprised that so few people seem to know about it. From any cell phone, you can send a text message request to Google's short code GOOGLE (i.e. the phone number 466453, corresponding to G-O-O-G-L-E on a standard phone keypad), and you'll get back an automated text message in a few seconds with an answer to your request. Google has a lot of info available, including yellow pages, movie listings, flight status, translations, and a lot more.

For example, to find the nearest Anna's Taqueria in Boston (if you don't already know their locations by heart...) you could send the text message

    02139 anna's taqueria

to the phone number 466453 (GOOGLE). In a few seconds, you should get the text message response,

    Local Listings:
    Anna's Taqueria
    84 Massachusetts Ave
    617-324-2662

Very handy. And for many of the things Google offers this is way faster than trying to browse the web on your phone (I've actually done this speed test a couple of times with my friends who have iPhones, which btw are nonetheless very cool).

There are a few downsides to Google's service. First, it's pretty tough to remember the info they offer, and not all of their features are listed when you text "help" or "tips" to GOOGLE (though the complete list is available on the web). So sometimes you just have to send off a text message request and hope for the best. A second problem is that location-based services (e.g. yellow pages) can't handle anything too sophisticated, e.g. "starbucks 28th and 5th nyc". Looking for the nearest Starbucks in New York City by zip code is pretty much pointless.

All in all, Google's SMS service is a very useful way to find info when you're out and about (though I mainly use it for address lookups). And since its free, its a short code thats definitely worth remembering.