What is Twitter?


Posted on March 9th, 2008 by Merlin.
Categories: Adult, Cell Phone, Communication, Freeware, Gadgets, Human, Video, Web Service, YouTube.

What is Twitter you ask - I mentioned it in a earlier blog and got a question to explain it - Well, instead of re-inventing the wheel I will post the video from CommonCraft - Who did the earlier video about what is a blog.

So, now start following your friends 140 Characters at a time.

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Google Announces Free 411 Service


Posted on April 8th, 2007 by Merlin.
Categories: Analog, Cell Phone, Communication, Free, Gadgets, Google.

Google Free 411 ServiceGoogle keeps getting more useful as the days go by. Today they released Google411.

Google Launches Free 411 Service (1-800-GOOG-411)

Google has released a new product called Goog-411, which is a free telephone based information service that could replace toll 411 calls.

According to UrbanLegands Web Page - About 6 billion 411 calls are made in the U.S. each year, and it is a $7 billion/year market.

Basically you do is to place a call to 1-800-GOOG-411 and use an automated 411 system that can connect you to the business for free or even send the information to your cell phone as a text message. I have played around with this and this really is a cool service. It works pretty good. Does take a little getting used to a service that works this well.

 

Here is the info about the service from Google GOOG-411 Page:

 

Using this service, you can:

  • search for a local business by name or category.
    You can say “Giovanni’s Pizzeria” or just “pizza“.
  • get connected to the business, free of charge.
  • get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
    Just say “text message“.

And it’s free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider.

Note: Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing your requests. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.

Here is the Cheat Sheet for using this service from Google:

Cheat Sheet

When you are asked for city and state, you can:

  • say the city and state like “Pittsburgh Pennsylvania”.
  • say the zip, e.g. “nine-oh-two-one-oh”.
  • type the zip code using the key pad, e.g. “9-0-2-1-0″.

When you are asked for a business name or category, you can:

  • say a business name, like “Frank’s pizzeria”.
  • say a category name, like “hardware stores”.
  • say “go back” to change city and state.

When browsing through results, you can:

  • say the listing number (e.g. “number two”) or press the corresponding key (e.g. “2″) to choose a listing or navigate between results.
  • say “text message” or press “9″ to receive a text message, when you are calling from a mobile phone.
  • say “details” to get more information about the current listing.
  • say “start over” or press “*” to start from the main menu.
  • say “go back” to change business or category.

Don’t Forget You can also use the Google SMS Service And you can read my write up about it here.

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