Google SMS: Useful or Overkill?

I hadn't heard anything about this lab, so I'm grateful for the blog. I am also living in the "Dark Ages" when it comes to cellphones. I just can't get excited about the idea of smartphones, but sometimes I do need information (addresses, phone numbers) on the go and can see this being incredibly useful.

I've used services like 411 for phone numbers in the past, but it can be frustrating if they give you information and it turns out to be different than you needed/wanted. E.g. Once I used 411 to order from a pizza place after a long roadtrip. Apparently there are two with the same name within 5 miles. The people at the first place I went to pick the pizza up at were very confused. With Google, I would've gotten it right the first time!

A friend was talking about some other new Google labs the other day. I haven't gotten a chance to check them out yet, but they also sounded really useful or interesting. I'd like to be a fly on the wall in the Google offices for one day to hear them come up with these ideas.

I use SMS quite often. You can get college sports scores. Type in ncaaf and the name of the school to get the score for an ongoing football game, last game, next game, and record. Type in nfl and the name of the team to get up to date info including score of game. Type in d and a word to get the definition of the word. Type in w city, state to get weather. Type in help to find out what you can find out.

I had heard about this a while back for a few basic services but never tried it and then forgot about it. It seems now they expanded it with much more information available.

I'll make sure to store it as a contact and hopefully remember to use it more often.

The translation thing looks especially cool. Weird that the example on their own page, "translate hello in french" returns a message that it can't detect the language you are using. "Dog", "Duck" & "Dead" translated fine though!

Also for short you can type in "t dog to french" saving on typing the full word translate.

Texting? Is this something I should know about? How does one do this with a telephone?

I like cwarner7 never text. The service I like most is the telephone directory called GOOG411. It works like a combined Yellow Pages and White Pages directory. Just dial 1.800.GOOG411 and when prompted, say the establishment, city and state. If you don't know the name of the establishment, just say what you know. Here is an example:

Say "Italian restaurant, Pasadena, California" and Google immediately replies with a list of restaurants. As each one is read, you are asked if that is the one you are looking for. After you affirm the establishment, Google will dial the number of the establishment for you.

There is no charge for this service. I've used it when traveling to locate a drug store and other establishments.

Wow, also very cool and good to know!

One thing i wonder is the cost. Is this mentioned anywhere? Do google charge the carrier and they in turn bill your phone?

Like most of Google's consumer products this is a completely free service. Standard text message rates apply but if you don't have text messages in your plan you aren't apt to use this service anyway.

This doesn't sound like anything totally new.

Whilst I was living near Shanghai about 4 years ago I was told of a service from China mobile where you could text a place name (in English or Chinese) and within a few seconds you would have the address messaged to you in English and Chinese. Very useful for when you can't tell the taxi driver in Chinese where you want to go. I also found that the service worked in other major cities in China.

I seem to remember I used to be able to get something similar to this in the UK also when I used Orange as my carrier 7-8 years ago.

It seems thouogh that what Google is offering is more comprehensive than those mentioned above and maybe it is a free service where as those were pay services.