Friday, October 08, 2010

Goodbye GOOG-411

Another day, another useful service goes away. First Lala.com, then Xmarks, and now Google's voice-activated search and information service GOOG-411 (800-GOOG-411) announcing that it will go away November 12, 2010. I use GOOG-411 at least once a week, sometimes more. Any recommendations on free alternatives?

7 comments:

  1. yeah it was helpful.
    there are a couple of alternatives.
    1-800-Bing-411
    brought to you by microsoft bing.
    there is a human answered search service.
    1-800-500-0000
    brought to you by justdial.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The 1-800-500-0000 service, I too heard quite a lot about it from my friends and used it twice. It's really awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just tried out 1-800-Bing-411, and it was the closest match to GOOG-411, with fully automated service, and the option to connect the call without having to write down the number. I tried 1-800-500-0000, and was connected to a live person who offered to read me the number, she said she couldn't connect the call. Looks like 800-Bing-411 is the best so far.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I used 1800GOOG411 service very frequently. Its a good feeling to know that the information is just one phone call away. I was really disheartened when I heard of it shutting down. One of my friends suggested calling 1800-500-0000, a toll free service by Justdial. This service will not cease to amaze you with its human assisted service, one ring pick up and they also connect you to the local vendors. Simply amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Google's idea of toll free service was innovative and it is sad to see it go down. Recently I came across a toll service by Justdial and the difference between the 2 services is vast. Justdial (1800-500-0000) boasts of human assisted service, one ring pick up and answers your queries within 60 seconds which 1800GOOG411 did not offer. This service is simply mindblowing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And yet another great service is going to shut down, because of lousy marketing department in Google! The big problem with Google is that they don't know how to market their great technologies and make money out of them. In this case their objection is that since they developed native apps for smartphones they don't see any advantage in Goog-411 and therefore they won’t continue the service. I guess they should look into numbers, even in US the majority of people still use regular phones rather than Smart phones. So this is not a good excuse to abandon this great service.
    Whit this attitude, Google is going to lose its customers, especially now that they step into Enterprise with their Google Apps. With this attitude, there is no guaranty for businesses to switch to Google and layout their needs on Google Services, because Google might withdraw those services with or without any reasons. i.e. Just in May, 2010 @Google IO they announced that they are opening Google Waves for Apps' users and couple months later they retired Wave! It's hard to trust on experimental technologies, and that is why Google hasn't been able to make money on most of its products except the search.
    Google! Please change this attitude!

    ReplyDelete