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Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

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Re: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

#11

Post by cryptoz »

BenSS wrote: post #4

Well this stinks both because I used it all the time, and it completely shuts out non-smartphone users from those services.

Better ask for your money back, then.

Okay, to be serious though: this service never made it to Canada so I only got to use it once while visiting the USA. It sounded pretty cool and I know you'll miss it.

Seeing as this is HN, though, this is an obvious opening for a startup right? I mean, Google clearly doesn't think the service was worthwhile but much of HN is lamenting its loss.

Re: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

#12

Post by e1ven »

Just a note- The company I used to work for, 1800 Free 411 is still around, and makes a pretty decent alternative. Free411 is ad supported, and doesn't have call completion, but otherwise its a pretty decent stand-in.

Re: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

#13

Post by lukeschlather »

cmars232 wrote: post #7
ronaldj wrote: post #5

Used this a number of times in a pinch. It'll definitely be missed. Makes me want a smartphone a little more.

Same here. Though I much prefer the Star-Trek-like, simple voice interface to interacting with a smartphone. There should be more voice apps like GOOG 411, not less.

Android 2.1 is pretty damn close. 2.2 seemed to be a little worse.

Main example: it used to be if you had someone's address in your contacts, you could hold down the search button until the voice search prompt came up, then say "Navigate to and it would pull up Google Navigation on that person's address.

Around 2.2 Google seems to have removed the ability to search your contacts from Google Maps. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a decision that searching your own contacts won't generate ad revenue. In any case, what happens now is it gives you a popup of search results for that name in your vicinity and asks you to choose, usually there are like 20.

Re: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

#14

Post by johnnygood »

pasbesoin wrote: post #6

TANSTAAFL I try to keep this in mind with respect to all "free" products, including others from Google. E.g. Google Apps Standard: Nice while it lasts, but don't invest in its sticking around.

Google Apps Standard might be different. Google Apps Standard is offering you the same thing that Google already offers for free, just using your own domain. It still has ads and such. As such, as long as Gmail, Google Calendar, etc. remain profitable, then Gmail for your domain, Google Calendar for your domain, etc. should have the same level of profitability (and cost). The additional service that Google is offering via Google Apps Standard is the ability to use your own domain which really doesn't cost Google.

GOOG-411 wasn't ad supported so they didn't make any money off of it. It seemed like it was being run in order to collect voice data to create better speech recognition algorithms. Now that many have smartphones, they're getting that data in a cheaper way and, ultimately, in a way that they can monetize easier. Rather than paying 800-number charges for everyone to call into (and pay while the call was connected), people are using their iPhone and Android devices to give Google voice data.

I think Google Voice is the more likely service to get canned. Phone charges can become burdensome while bandwidth is essentially free when you're Google's size (since I'm guessing they're working off peering agreements more than buying bandwidth). Even if they were buying bandwidth, bandwidth is something with lots of competitors and very low regulatory charges. Phone connections are different.

Re: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

#15

Post by someone_here »

cryptoz wrote: post #11
BenSS wrote: post #4

Well this stinks both because I used it all the time, and it completely shuts out non-smartphone users from those services.

Better ask for your money back, then. Okay, to be serious though: this service never made it to Canada so I only got to use it once while visiting the USA. It sounded pretty cool and I know you'll miss it. Seeing as this is HN, though, this is an obvious opening for a startup right? I mean, Google clearly doesn't think the service was worthwhile but much of HN is lamenting its loss.

Goog 411 was in Canada for 2 years.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/article692565...

Re: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

#16

Post by cryptoz »

someone_here wrote: post #15
cryptoz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better ask for your money back, then. Okay, to be serious though: this service never made it to Canada so I only got to use it once while visiting the USA. It sounded pretty cool and I know you'll miss it. Seeing as this is HN, though, this is an obvious opening for a startup right? I mean, Google clearly doesn't think the service was worthwhile but much of HN is lamenting its loss.

Goog 411 was in Canada for 2 years. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/article692565...

What?! Wow, I missed that entirely :(

Re: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

#18

Post by cryptoz »

ogrodnek wrote: post #17

Seems to be more proof that the telephone is becoming legacy -- the least important part of a "smartphone" is the phone.

I own an iPhone 3G and I really wish that my carrier (Rogers) would let me get rid of all phone-related services. I don't want or need them. Internet in my pocket is really the important part. And if I want to talk, send my voice through the data channels!

Same with TV; I don't own one, but I wish the cable companies would kill a few shitty cable TV channels and use that bandwidth for Internet data instead.

Re: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

#19

Post by nooneelse »

lukeschlather wrote: post #13
cmars232 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Though I much prefer the Star-Trek-like, simple voice interface to interacting with a smartphone. There should be more voice apps like GOOG 411, not less.

Android 2.1 is pretty damn close. 2.2 seemed to be a little worse. Main example: it used to be if you had someone's address in your contacts, you could hold down the search button until the voice search prompt came up, then say "Navigate to and it would pull up Google Navigation on that person's address. Around 2.2 Google seems to have removed the ability to search your contacts from Google Maps. I'm not sure if this…

Workaround, if you just say their name, it will pull up their contact info and you can tap the address there.
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