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1-800-Google Launches

Posted by Zonk on Fri Apr 06, 2007 10:37 PM
from the crying-with-information dept.
Businesses Google The Internet Communications
The Webguy wrote to mention a C|Net article talking about Google's newest toy - Local Voice Search. The service is dirt simple: you call a 1-800 number and, via voice recognition software, say the category of business you're trying to reach. You can also try for a specific name, though the C|Net blogger had some problems with that. The Google Blog has been updated with details as well: "Google Voice Local Search lets you search for local businesses from any phone and for free. If you're in the US, call 1-800-GOOG-411 and say what you want to find. Here are some of the features -You can find a business listing by category. Just say "pizza," for example. You can send the listing details to your mobile phone via SMS. The service is fully automated, so it doesn't rely on human operators. It connects you directly to the business, free of charge."
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  • Hello, Google? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bensafrickingenius (828123) on Friday April 06 2007, @10:41PM (#18643125)
    "Nookie."

  • Cool! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Aminion (896851) on Friday April 06 2007, @10:43PM (#18643133)
    Finally there is an easy way of calling 911!
  • It's impressive to think the resources it would take to run this service. I wonder what software they use to do the voice recognition.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I wonder what software they use to do the voice recognition.
      Google has a lot of natural language processing and speech recognition researchers on their staff; I suspect that it is a home-brew solution.
    • Google uses Nuance Communications' speech recognition engine. Even though Google has hired a few folks from Nuance a while ago, it is NOT using homebrew technology, at least not as far as the engine is concerned. And even if Google had planned to build their own engine (they have no good reason to, really), it would have taken longer than a couple of years and much more than a handful of ex-Nuance engineers to be able to come up with a competitive speech reco engine -- the entry bar is high, even for Goog
      • Anyone else think the voice is creepy? It's more realistic than other automated voice systems, but still doesn't sound human. Maybe they hit the uncanny valley.

        The voice was a guy though; perhaps that's what I think is wrong. All the other automated voices I've heard (local transit system, 1-800-free-411, etc; have all used female voices. Perhaps the softness of a female voice helps gloss over the realism flaws in the voice?

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by The-Ixian (168184)
        I am surprised to hear someone say this. I have actually been very impressed with current voice recognition voice systems. I use HP, FedEx and Microsoft's voice recognition systems regularly and have only had a problem with recognition in very noisy environments.
        • I have to agree. PayPal has an excellent (and has had for quite a while) Voice Recognition system. But it all really comes down to who designs the IVR. A well designed IVR is a pleasure to navigate. But you rarely run into one of the good ones...

          • But it all really comes down to who designs the IVR. A well designed IVR is a pleasure to navigate.

            I think the whole point is to eliminate navigation. At least that's what I like about google maps. I can enter "einstein bagels near university of new mexico" and it works. (I just tried that on yahoo maps and it also worked, so I guess they've caught up). I would assume this is what google is bringing to the telephone, not hunting down through a nested menu of listings. IMHO the future is searching a

  • I wonder... (Score:4, Funny)

    by had3l (814482) on Friday April 06 2007, @10:44PM (#18643143)
    I wonder if it recognizes "Escort Services".

    *sigh* who am I kidding?
  • Why? Doesn't Google do enough? Is anybody but me reminded of the dot-com boom? Big companies doing too much at once, gaining money/people at an alarming rate, and then inevitably crashing and burning. With every "BETA" they release I get more and more afraid one day I'll go to open my GMail and get a "Google has gone into Chapter 11" message or some such.

    • Re:One Question... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by poliopteragriseoapte (973295) on Friday April 06 2007, @10:51PM (#18643177)
      One difference is that in the dot-com era, you saw companies valued billions operating in a market that was worth a fraction of that - in the hope that in the "new economy" there would suddenly be billions of new dollars pouring into all possible sectors of the economy. In contrast, Google is profitable, this service must have been set up with a smallish (50?) number of employees, and the DA 411 market is worth some 8 billion dollars per year - and that is before advertisement is taken into account. So your comparison does not run very deep.

      • One difference is that in the dot-com era, you saw companies valued billions operating in a market that was worth a fraction of that - in the hope that in the "new economy" there would suddenly be billions of new dollars pouring into all possible sectors of the economy. In contrast, Google is profitable

        Sure. Google is profitable, but the bulk of it's revenue stream comes from a single source - web advertising.

        • One difference is that in the dot-com era, you saw companies valued billions operating in a market that was worth a fraction of that - in the hope that in the "new economy" there would suddenly be billions of new dollars pouring into all possible sectors of the economy. In contrast, Google is profitable

          Sure. Google is profitable, but the bulk of it's revenue stream comes from a single source - web advertising.

          As with Microsoft and their Windows and Office products, no?

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by GunFodder (208805)
          Right. So Google, like every other company that dominates a particular market, worries about saturating that same market. Even successful companies have to try new things if they want to keep growing. Google has thrown a lot of stuff at wall to see if it sticks, and this is yet another effort to establish an profitable market.
        • You said:
          > Sure. Google is profitable, but the bulk of it's revenue stream comes from a single source - web advertising.

          I used to think this was a problem, but I don't think it is anymore. There are many industries with a single revenue stream - Toyota for example. Or TV - yes, TV, it's all advertiser supported - a single revenue stream supporting hundreds and thousands of channels, with a zillion employees and so on. All dependent on a single revenue stream.

          While I suppose your point was that Google'

    • Re:One Question... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by daeg (828071) on Friday April 06 2007, @11:19PM (#18643337)
      There's a few key differences. First, Google is already profitable. Second, Google adds services over time, whereas many of the dot-com rushers tries to do everything at once. Google has the brand recognition and strong history to even the most novice of Internet users required that none of the dot-com guys, even with their tens of millions of marketing dollars, had.

      With Google being a public company, they have more incentive to retain services than other service companies. They have far more to lose if they close a service than if, say, Webmail.us folded, since e-mail is all Webmail.us does. That reason alone will force them to keep large, successful services like Gmail alive, even if it is eventually in a reduced form.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ystar (898731)
      Google may see it as an investment in basic search technology - voice recognition might serve to "listen" to YouTube videos for time-sensitive ad-placement (see Google, i'm full of ideas, so hire me! =D ) If thousands of people try it and don't like it, they try to learn why, potentially improve it, or they have one of arguably several ideas that never went anywhere, and may or may not see the light of day again. Few bucks lost, price of research, etc. If it takes off, they stick local ads in it. I doubt th
    • Google has $11 Billion in cash and short term receivables, and $18 Billion in total assets. This has nothing to do with stock price, but actual things they own. Furthermore, their revenue and profit has been doubling yearly for the last five years. They made $3+ billion in profit last year. They also (like it or not) own patents and other "intellectual property" (I hate that term) to license to make money. The search ad market is growing, and Google is gaining share in that growing market.

      I'm not too worrie
    • > Why? Doesn't Google do enough?

      Call them up and ask for "Brand Dilution" :-)

  • So if the this is completely free of charge..... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 8127972 (73495) on Friday April 06 2007, @10:47PM (#18643153)
    .... just how does Google plan to make money from this? Sure it takes away business from traditional directory based searches, but I still fail to see how the cash that those services would get end up in Google's pocket. I'm sure that if I'm missing something that /.'ers will point out what that something is.

    • It's in response to a Microsoft move. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Animats (122034) on Friday April 06 2007, @10:48PM (#18643163) Homepage

      It's their answer to Microsoft's acquisition of TellMe. (1-800-555-TELL). Presumably, like TellMe, after a while they will add ads.

    • Re:So if the this is completely free of charge.... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by aarku (151823) on Friday April 06 2007, @10:53PM (#18643189) Journal
      Well, one idea is that they could sell what company shows up first in your area when you ask for "Pizza." That ought to be worth a lot.
    • sure. you pay to have your business listed preferentially.
      If no business is preferential or there is a "tie" then the user gets a short voice advert "while we find your numbers" and gets connected.

      On a related note I got bored/frustrated with Delta airlines automated attendant some time ago and had lots of fun. Got into a sorta dialogue with the blasted thing then managed to end up in some sort of maintenance mode. Couldn't change any settings (required password, lord knows I tried) but I could monitor status.
      -nB
    • I see it as a way for them to know what people are searching for, just like their google search engine. You'd be surprised to know how much that sort of information can be worth to companies.
    • To me, it sounds like they are planning a slow takeover of VoIP by offering tidbits of functionality here and there, to regroup them all in the future as a mega-package...
    • My guess is that the monetization will be ... (surprise!) ... advertising!

      This is what an existing service does (1-800-FREE-411) where after you give 'em all the information, you hear a short ad, and then are given the option of connection to that advertiser ... or who you wanted in the first place.

      P.S. Bummer Google didn't release this on April 1st ... ;-)

    • I think it's been pretty clearly established by now that Google is not very concerned about the short term money-making prospects of most of the products that it launches. In the long term, ads can be added to anything, and there is probably even some less-tangible value to running a free service that people like and use. Besides, this was probably a 20% project that a handful of people got together and created in their free time--there's little to lose even if it turns out to be a catastrophic failure.
    • Possible motivations for Google:

      1. Further promote Google's value and brand in the minds of consumers and business owners alike. This is following in the same vein as the Google Local Business Center's completely free coupons that you can create for your business to appear on Google Maps. Call it good PR.

      2. Statistics. Useful not only to them, but to local business owners. Again, develops brand loyalty and is good PR.

      3. As part and parcel of 1 and 2, they hope that some of these local business owners will l

  • Does this sign you up for phone spam? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx (565205) on Friday April 06 2007, @11:08PM (#18643261)

    You can send the listing details to your mobile phone via SMS.


    Does this sign you up for phone spam?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by michaelhood (667393)
      Nope. I've been using the SMS-based version of this (Send an SMS with 'pizza' or 'weather' to 46645 (GOOGL)) and haven't received a single unsolicited message. It's unfortunate that spammers have given SMS such a bad repertoire. Everytime I see an SMS-based service that seems legitimate I am still leery of using it because I don't want SMS spam waking me in the middle of the night.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by pdhenry (671887)
        Telemarketers are allowed to call your cell phone but they're not allowed to use automatic dialers (the kind that transfer you to an agent after you've answered) to call your cell phone. Since just about all telemarketers use automatic dialers this effectively kills telemarkting to cell phones.

  • Hello Google? (Score:5, Funny)

    by i_ate_god (899684) on Saturday April 07 2007, @12:03AM (#18643567)
    I'm feeling lucky

  • interesting (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cashman73 (855518) on Saturday April 07 2007, @12:04AM (#18643575) Journal
    Tried the number, and I'd say it works pretty well. I searched for "pizza" in "Scottsdale, Arizona", and it gave me quite a listing. I was also impressed that I only had to say "Flagstaff", and it knew automatically that it was in Arizona also (although there is also a Flagstaff, Maine, but I think that's a ghost town these days) ...

    Google also recognized the term "brewpub", and located my favorite one, too! :-)

    Sadly, they didn't understand my search for, "beer and hookers." But my search for "prostitites" in Scottsdale resulted in a response of, "We didn't find any exact matches, but here are a couple that come close ..." I got a kick out of the fourth listing they provided, which was for the Alliance Defense Fund [alliancedefensefund.org],. . . (no joke ;-)

    An an unrelated note, if all of use call this number tonight, do you think it might be a first to "slashdot" a telephone? ;-) If we can slashdot Google's number, we should have CowboyNeal post a Telemarketer of the Week's number on slashdot ... try to bring down some truly useless and evil people,... :-)

    • Whoops! "prostitites" should be "prostitutes" ... sorry! No pun intended! Really! ;-)
    • Just checked it out also, and it works fairly well. It didn't pick out my favorite pizza joint out of the top selections. Voice recognition was good, although I didn't try out the hooker aspect, but it picked up on "automotive repair" and "cars". Not bad for a first look.
  • I noticed the service automatically connects you to the business. Does this mean that Google pays if you are transferred to a long-distance number (i.e. since your call is actually connected to 800-goog411)?
    • Presumably... you've been able to initiate the same thing through Google Local for awhile now. Since everyone gets free long distance on their cell phones it isn't really that useful though...

  • Weird.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by theheff (894014) on Saturday April 07 2007, @12:31AM (#18643707) Homepage
    When i asked for it to find porn in Oklahoma, it gave me the first three results:

    1. First Christian Church
    2. The local police department
    3. Animal Control

    Maybe it's just not the same as the real google.

  • Free 411 (Score:2, Informative)

    by Esekla (453798)
    Seems very much like 800-FREE-411 but hopefully without the ads?

  • "Miserable Failure" (Score:3, Funny)

    by gardyloo (512791) on Saturday April 07 2007, @11:07AM (#18646867)
    ...
    *Bing!* "White House Operator. How may I direct your call?"

          Man, I *wish* that still worked.

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