Get emergency text alerts and win a Toyota

First Alert System Text (FAST) issued a press release announcing a contest to promote their national alert service. According to the press release,

Persons who subscribe to the National Emergency Alert Network are automatically entered in the running for one of the 100 new Toyota cars or trucks. Entering simply requires texting the word FAST followed by a space and then your zip code to the National Emergency Alert Service Short code 47733

You can also sign up on the web at firstalerttext.com.

The downside here is that it will cost you $0.99 per month, but I suppose that isn't much if the service is genuinely useful.

Raise $1 for Toys for Tots by SMS

Disney is running a campaign to help raise money for Toys for Tots between December 3rd and December 17th. For every person that texts "heart" to the short code "27138", Disney will donate $1. They'll also enroll you in a sweepstakes to win some Disney stuff.

Interesting SMS prize game

Limbo has an interesting game/contest called Limbo grab. Apparently here's how it works: every time you text a message to their short code 41414 you "hold" the prize, until someone else texts in to take it from you. At the end of the game whoever has "held" the prize the longest wins it.

As I'm writing this the current prizes they've got include a copy of Guitar Hero 3, $150 of Netflix movies, and a Sony MP3 player.

Thats a pretty unique and neat idea.

Followup: Text the troops on Thanksgiving

Looks like the DoD's "Giving Thanks" program got over 130,000 responses in the week that it ran.

Text the troops on Thanksgiving

The Department of Defense is running an SMS program called "Giving Thanks". The program allows anyone to send thanks (or probably any positive message) to servicemembers abroad by texting to the short code 89279. The messages will then be viewable by the troops via a special web page (presumibly after the comments have been filtered by the pentagon...). The program will run until midnight PST Nov. 22nd.

Send a text message, get a pizza

Papa John's has just launched a new service that allows people to order pizza by SMS. Very cool, but not as cool as it could be. According to the press release, you have to first create an account at Papa John's web site, where you enter your billing info, most common orders, and delivery address. Then when you want to place an order, you text something like "FAV1" to their short code 4PAPA (47272).

This could take off if they can spread the word, considering that after introducing web-based ordering in 2001 Papa John's now gets 20% of it's orders via the web. Being able to order pizza by SMS is very neat, but what I'd really like to be able to do is text in "lrg pizza pepperoni onions", and then get prompted for my delivery address if it isn't already on file. It's very cool that Papa John's is the first company to allow pizza orders by SMS, but I hope they improve their system a bit so that you're not required to enter your orders ahead of time.

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.