Google 411
i hate to be a walking advertisement for another company, an infectious host for a viral marketing campaign, but i’ve got to say google 411 is really amazing. i saw a billboard for the service on my way home, and had to try it out. i give it two thumbs up.
first of all, it’s free (at least right now it is). i don’t know how long it’s been since at&t stopped providing the service, it seems like almost 10 years. on a cellphone, the cost for a phonebook service had been in the 1$ range.
second of all, the voice recognition feature is really, really good. i’ve compared to both bmw’s idrive recognition and apple’s built-in finder voice recognition on OSX.4. it’s hands down the best voice recognition technology i’ve ever experienced. if it’s not sure what you said, i.e. doesn’t have an exact match, it gives you a list of things you may have said, and you can confirm by number.
the computerized voice is better than anything i’ve ever seen. very natural sounding. the intonation makes it very easy to understand. there is some room for improvement here, but it is by far the best ever computer voice at this point in time.
the interface: you say the city and state; you confirm the location; you say which listing you need; you then get the address and phone number; you’re prompted as to whether or not you’d like the info in a text message; it then repeats the info; it then connects you automatically to the phone number. there’s nothing more i could want from a 411 service. it is brilliant.
really, you ought to try it out for yourself. go on, pick up your phone… (1.800.GOOG.411)
