Paul Boutin's GOOG-411 Test

Paul Boutin says: "While everyone else is pontificating on what the GOOG-411 billboards around the country must mean, I called the number a few dozen times during lunch to test it. I think of Cory every time it answers -- not with a hello but with 'Calls recorded for quality.'"

I spent a half hour speed-dialing Google's new phone directory service, 800-GOOG-411. The verdict? Google's speech-recognition and geo-mapping algorithms outperformed Verizon and AT&T's humans this afternoon. GOOG-411 figured out that "Dover-Foxcroft" was a town in Maine rather than bouncing me to an operator. It deduced that "H H Brown Shoes" meant a store in nearby Dexter. It let me talk with my mouth full. But the service makes an irritatingly un-Googly first impression on callers.

Link

[#1 posted by Robert , October 1, 2007 6:21 PM]

Meh... it didn't get the new (2 week old) bank branch in my town. I guess it just relies on the phone company's listings...

[#2 posted by kinokino , October 1, 2007 7:17 PM]

i think the impression is very googly.....i don't get it.

[#3 posted by wugmump , October 2, 2007 6:28 AM]

i think it's very google, actually... no nonsense, to the point. time is money!

[#4 posted by caseyd , October 2, 2007 6:59 AM]

If you think this is great, just wait
until you get a google phone!

The gmail addbar will seem quaint compared to what voice recognition based indexing of your cell phone life will provide you.

or provide you to.

[#5 posted by DragonPhyre , October 2, 2007 7:33 AM]

The article is nothing like the blurb. WTF?

[#6 posted by tpaperny , October 2, 2007 8:18 AM]

I've been using it for a few weeks now. The different childish high-pitched voice that says "Goog-411" at the start of every call is really creepy.

And I've had some navigation troubles, where it won't let me interrupt the list of "top hits." Still a bit glitch-y, but better than regular ol' 411 because you can narrow a search by entering an intersection (that function isn't always presented to me, though...)

[#7 posted by Monster , October 2, 2007 8:56 AM]

"The different childish high-pitched voice that says 'Goog-411' at the start of every call is really creepy."

Actually, I think the voices are random. Sometimes different women, sometimes different men, sometimes a child.

[#8 posted by phrits , October 2, 2007 9:50 AM]

I've been using it off and on for a couple of months with spotty results. Something as common as (the only) Wendy's restaurant in Blacksburg, VA should have been an easy hit but wasn't. It's also a little clunky with a big list--say Wendy's in Charlotte, NC--so there's definitely some room to build in filtering by street address or whatever.

That said, it's still my first hit. The price is right.