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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

#41

Post by mattmaroon »

smakz wrote: post #35
sh1mmer wrote: post #28

I think Google are actually really brave to do this and I for one am proud of them. Lots of corporate companies keep around products in zombie states for years because they are afraid of shutting stuff down and upsetting customers. Google provides lots of free services and I think it's awesome that they try stuff, innovate and then pull out when it's not working for them. I think it's good they gave everyone a month'…

The flip side of course is that it becomes dangerous if you rely on any of Google's free services. An extreme example, but what happens if GMail isn't profitable enough? Maybe Adsense for content isn't pulling it's weight any more (if it ever has)? 411 was a fairly useful service, and while shutting it down is probably the right business move, it pushes me more and more to move my primary email account and diversifyi…

Most services have no switching cost, so it doesn't really matter. Gmail is pretty much the only Google service I can think of that would be a pain, and they'd keep Gmail even if it were losing money for a large host of reasons.

Oh, also Google Voice. When they bought that they changed my number on me and I basically stopped using it as a result.

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

#42

Post by izendejas »

joezydeco wrote: post #38
smakz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side of course is that it becomes dangerous if you rely on any of Google's free services. An extreme example, but what happens if GMail isn't profitable enough? Maybe Adsense for content isn't pulling it's weight any more (if it ever has)? 411 was a fairly useful service, and while shutting it down is probably the right business move, it pushes me more and more to move my primary email account and diversifyi…

The rumor I always heard was that 411 was only around to stress-test their voice recognition backend. It really wasn't delivering ads or anything of revenue to them.

Rather than a rumor, it's just the way Google works. They are as data-driven as you can get. Think of all the AI work they're doing that one easily takes for granted: computer vision (image search, goggles, street view), nlp (translate, voice, search, etc), machine learning (search, et al), etc.

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

#45

Post by inafewwords »

My parents got into an argument for getting lost locating a restaurant. We were going to head home so I pulled out my cellphone and used goog411 to contact the restaurant and ask for directions. It was located around the corner from where we were driving around.

That place was delicious.

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

#46

Post by robk »

smakz wrote: post #39
joezydeco wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rumor I always heard was that 411 was only around to stress-test their voice recognition backend. It really wasn't delivering ads or anything of revenue to them.

I've also heard rumors that Gmail and Adsense for Content aren't particularly profitable for Google. Of course I've also heard that the brand equity created with Gmail is very valuable and those two are extreme examples, but even based on similar rumors it's possible Google could shut down either one.

Adsense for Content is exceptionally profitable. Gmail pulls its weight.

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

#48

Post by andrewtbham »

smakz wrote: post #35
sh1mmer wrote: post #28

I think Google are actually really brave to do this and I for one am proud of them. Lots of corporate companies keep around products in zombie states for years because they are afraid of shutting stuff down and upsetting customers. Google provides lots of free services and I think it's awesome that they try stuff, innovate and then pull out when it's not working for them. I think it's good they gave everyone a month'…

The flip side of course is that it becomes dangerous if you rely on any of Google's free services. An extreme example, but what happens if GMail isn't profitable enough? Maybe Adsense for content isn't pulling it's weight any more (if it ever has)? 411 was a fairly useful service, and while shutting it down is probably the right business move, it pushes me more and more to move my primary email account and diversifyi…

my understanding is that "Adsense for content" is called " Google Network Web Sites" on their financial statements, and it's responsible for about 1/3 of their revenue.

http://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html

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

#49

Post by elblanco »

joezydeco wrote: post #38
smakz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side of course is that it becomes dangerous if you rely on any of Google's free services. An extreme example, but what happens if GMail isn't profitable enough? Maybe Adsense for content isn't pulling it's weight any more (if it ever has)? 411 was a fairly useful service, and while shutting it down is probably the right business move, it pushes me more and more to move my primary email account and diversifyi…

The rumor I always heard was that 411 was only around to stress-test their voice recognition backend. It really wasn't delivering ads or anything of revenue to them.

Right, and now they have millions of Android devices out in the wild with voice input collecting for them.

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

#50

Post by emit_time_n3rgy »

e1ven wrote: post #12

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.

And then there's 1-800-BING-411 (1-800-246-4411) which used to be called something like 1-800-Tell-Me. I prefer ggle's sms-based service. I've also tried ChaCha.com (txt 242-242) where humans respond instead of software but the service has declined from my experience over the passed couple years.
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