On April 6th, Google Labs released Google Voice Local Search. The services is Google’s experiment into delivering local-business search results over the phone.
The toll-free number to access the service is 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone. Land line or mobile, it doesn’t matter. If you dial from a mobile, you may be incur fees depending on your carrier.
I wanted to try out this new service out. I called the number and was greeted by a computer generated male voice. Here is a rough transcript:
Google 411 Operator: “Goog 411, an experiment. What city and state?”
JB: “Loves Park Illinois”
G: “Loves Park Illinois” What business category or category.
JB: “Pizza”
G: “Pizza. Top eight results. Number one. Papa John’s Pizza on north Second Street. Press number one or press one to select. Number two. Nunzio’s Resturant and Lounge on north Secord Street.”
B: (Presses #1)
G: You have selected Papa John’s Pizza on north Second Street, I’ll connect you. You can also send this result as a text message.”
First impressions: You can’t beat the price, free. Also, the artifical voice was tolerable and seemed to pronouce everything accurately. A downside is that is completely automated. There is no human interaction on Google’s end, so you may get undesired results.
Quite impressive and you don’t have to pay $0.75 to listen to James Earl Jones, like you do for Verizon’s 411 service.
If you mispeak, you can say, “go back” to start your search over. Also, by typing or saying a zip code, you can select your city and state.
I added the number to my mobile phone’s contact list. It should come in handy when I am out of town at a conference.
Give it a try and tell me what you think about it.
