Google To Shut Down 411 Service

taco8982 writes "After three years of providing free directory assistance in exchange for voice samples, Google has announced plans to shut down the GOOG-411 service, in order to focus on 'speech-enabling the next generation of Google products and services across a multitude of languages.' The service will close on November 12th."

Re:what?

[Donniedarkness]

I had actually started using it last month. It's amazingly useful. RIP :(

Nuance and IBM

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Nuance and IBM hold so many patents in the voice recognition field it's not even funny. With MS suing Android for things as innocuous as "syncing", I wonder what, if anything, Google is doing to protect or aid handset makers from this type of litigation. As I mentioned before in a previous post, a simple list showing all applicable patents and necessary licenses would help give a heads up to Android device makers.

Sad Day!

[odin84gk]

Goog411 was amazing! No ads, good results. Thankfully I have a smartphone, but there were still times that Goog411 was faster than using my smartphone.

I guess I will go back to 1-800-Free411

Re:Sad day

[Anti_Climax]

Just SMS the name of the business to 46645 (googl) with your non-smart phone and get similar results messaged back

Re:what?

[odies]

Or a single page that lists them all [wikimedia.org].

Use it all the time

[gregraven]

I had a bad feeling about Google 411. It used to be one of the options when you called your own Google Voice account -- you pressed 2 to find the number you wanted. Then Google deleted it out of Google Voice without any notification that I ever saw. I use it all the time with my old "dumb" cell phone. It's a great service, and I'll be sad to see it go.

Re:Bing 411

[amliebsch]

I just confirmed Microsoft's original 1-800-CALL411 number works as well. If you used the Google service, this is a decent alternative.

Re:Sad day

[demonlapin]

On my last non-smart phone, a Moto RAZR, you could press one button to activate voice dialing. Press that, say "Google", let it connect. Talk over hands-free Bluetooth. It was less distracting than changing the radio.

Re:Sad day

[rm999]

You can thank competition: http://www.discoverbing.com/mobile/411/ [discoverbing.com]

OTOH, msft copied Google on this one. Does that mean they will copy Google on discontinuing the service? ;)

Re:what?

[NatasRevol]

Or even something... authoritative.

http://www.googlelabs.com/ [googlelabs.com]