You can finally become that walking database you’ve always aspired to be with Google Short Message Service (SMS) in your pocket…
This slick little service has gotten me out of a pinch on numerous occasions. Just last night I was able to send a text message to GOOGL (46645) – leave off the ‘E’ – to get the address for a local bar. The response time was less than 30 seconds (this has been a typical wait time in my experience). Then, all I had to do was forward it on to my friends who were all meeting there, that’s it! And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Here are some other things Google says you can do with this very cool service:
“get phone listings, weather conditions, question answering, movie showtimes, sports scores, and more.
Requirements: A text messaging plan from your mobile service provider; any old mobile phone should work.
Here’s the comprehensive list of cool things you can do:
There’s also a useful ‘help’/’tips’ message you can receive from Google that includes brief instructions on the various ways to use the service. Due to inbox limits on most phones, this instruction message may get deleted. You can prevent this by using the lock feature on your phone…if not, you can always send a text with the word ‘help’ or ‘tips’ to get another copy.
Some Final Thoughts:
As far as I can tell, there are no restrictions on your service carrier, type of phone or location within the lower 48 states. If there’s more data than will fit in a single message, you’ll recieve multiple text messages that are numbered accordingly.
One of the nicest things about this service is the minimal demand it puts on the hardware (cell phone) you’re carrying around. Take the Google SMS service for a spin at their website to get a feel for how it works with their very real demo. So shelve that expensive data plan and ramp up your monthly text message limit.
NOTE: This service has been available for awhile now, but it’s so useful that I felt it deserved this entry.