One Man's Blog

Specialization is for Insects.

Home / Audio / Google’s Free Local Phone Search: 800-GOOG-411

Google’s Free Local Phone Search: 800-GOOG-411

John P.

By

1-800-Goog411Google has launched an experimental service called Google Voice Local Search which makes local-business searches accessible over the phone.

And it’s free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. So stop dialing 411 and paying those astronomical Cell phone charges!

Here is a sample call I made to demonstrate:
Sample 800-GOOG-411 Call

To try it yourself, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.

Here are a few of the features:

  • You can find a business listing by category. Just say “pizza,” for example.
  • You can send the listing details to your mobile phone via SMS.
  • The service is fully automated, so it doesn’t rely on human operators.
  • It connects you directly to the business, free of charge. However, your telephone company may apply regular charges for making a phone call or receiving an SMS.

Here is how to use it:

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

  • say the city and state like “beverly hills california”.
  • 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 “Giovanni’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.

Comments

  1. who we are
    The Brookland Café features a full bar and serves modern American cuisine, vegan and vegetarian food, desserts and specialty drinks.
    We’re a discerning yet unpretentious neighborhood tavern and we’re looking for passionate individuals, foodies and wine/spirit lovers. Our atmosphere is friendly and upbeat.

  2. Incidentally, there is also another free 411 service called (appropriately) 1-800-Free-411. But that one makes you listen to a 15 second ad before giving you your free listing.