Google's Free 411 Really Works
I love freebies, especially useful ones, and Google has plenty of them. Their latest toy is the Voice Local Search.
Call Google's toll-free 800-466-4411 (or if it's easier for you to remember: 800-GOOG-411), say your city and state (saying the zip code didn't always work well), and you'll be asked "what business?" Give it either the specific name of a business or a category, something you'd typically see in the Yellow Pages, let's say, restaurants.
A disembodied voice reads a list of business names, starting each one with a number. If you hear one you like, say any one of the numbers (even if the one you want has already been said) and you'll be connected to the business, all at no charge. That's very cool.
Depending when you are in the voice prompts, saying "go back" will let you switch to another business category; "start over" gives you a way to start from scratch with a new city and state. Click here for a Google cheat sheet and here for a FAQ.
Google did a perfect job on easy categories -- veterinarians, doctors, dentists, dry cleaners, and even upholsterers and clock repairs. But I had less success with trickier categories, such as car detailer (offered a carpet installer 20 miles away), hubcap supplier (couldn't understand what I wanted), and hot tub repair (suggested a hothouse repair).
But hey, for a free directory information call from your cell phone for most businesses, Google comes in handy.
Behind the scenes look at Google's
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Full disclosure: this is Paul from 1-800-Free411, and I just wanted to let everyone know about some of the differences between our service and the Google 411 service. First of all, we offer business, residential, and gov't listings, whereas the Google number offers only business listings. Secondly, we have live operator support for those few times when voice-recognition software doesn't understand you (as in the article above), whereas the Google number has no such operator support. Lastly -- and this is a recent development at 1-800-Free411 -- we now offer category search; if you don't know the specific listing, just tell us the category (for example, "furniture"), and our system will proceed to give you options for category matches in your area.
Thanks for providing us this space to contribute to this discussion.
Paul
I am a big Free411 fan, and I agree that it is much more useful when I am trying to find a person or a difficult to pronounce business. The operator support is great.
However, Goog411 has two big advantages: No ads (yet), and they will connect you for free (which is great when I am somewhere where I don't have a pen and paper handy).