Google Voice Local Search

OK this is just about the coolest thing to surface in a long time. It’s free, it’s from Google and it will save you time, money and hassle. It’s called by the unwieldy name of Google Voice Local Search and here’s how it works. You dial 1 800 466-4411 (or 1-800 GOOG 411) and it asks you for your city and state (in the US). You say “Toledo, Ohio” (or wherever) and it says it back to you. Then it asks for the business (or type of business), you answer and it gives you a short list of businesses that match in or near Toledo.

If number 3 on the list interests you, you say “number 3” and it gives more details. You can ask for still more details and it will give you the phone number. If you want, it will connect you to the business for free. Oh, and it can send the details to your phone as a text message. The way I figure it, you can put this phone number in your cell phone, or carry around the Yellow Pages. See more info here: http://labs.google.com/goog411/

I tried it and it worked perfectly. Well, the results were not sorted geographically, so of three hits, the one I wanted was number three even though it was much closer than the other two. But there is no training it to recognize my voice, yet it understood me perfectly. This is going to be huge.