Google Launches Free 411 Service

Here is a great help when you are on the road, at work or home, and need to call a business but don't know their phone number. It's a free 411 service from Google that is described below. Make it a voice activated automatic dial-in on your cell phone -- 1-800-GOOG-411 --and you are good to go.

I learned about it from this post on techcrunch.com:

Google threw a new product called Goog-411 into Google Labs today - a free telephone based information service that could replace toll 411 calls. About 2.6 billion 411 calls are made in the U.S. each year, and it is a $7 billion/year market.Goog-411 can be accessed by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411. The product is completely automated and there is no way to talk to a human for additional or clarifying information. You tell it your city and state, and then ask for a specific business or business category. In my tests the product was excellent. Although the voice recognition was only working at about 70% efficiency, I just said “back” and retried when it didn’t understand what I said. Results are spoken back or text messaged back to you, and you are automatically put through to the phone number requested.GOOG-411 is using Google’s normal local business information available on Google Maps and elsewhere. Businesses that want to add or correct data can do so here.

Google Launches Free 411 Service