Google SMS Moves Into Beta
Google has moved the Google SMS service from its ‘Labs’ section, where its weirder and wackier offerings reside, to official beta status. In Google terms this is as good as putting it live - after all, the massively popular Google News is still in beta, years after its launch.
In case you haven’t tried Google SMS, it has the potential to become a major part of the Googling phenomenom. Send a text message with your query (more on what sort of things you can ask later) to Google and the answer will be texted back to you in a jiffy.
The service is available in both the USA and the UK and Google themselves don’t charge, however, your mobile operator will certainly apply a charge for the texting of the question (or take it from the texts included in your price plan) and may even charge you for receiving the reply.
So, with that in mind, what can Google SMS do for you? The killer application is as a mobile yellow pages. You message the thing you are looking for and the place where you need it and Google will text you with a list of businesses. The data is obviously coming from Google Local for this one and that isn’t the most comprehensive directory in the world (at least it’s not in the UK), but this should change. If you are looking for directions, just text the start and end points and Google will do the rest.
Google SMS will also do the basics, giving you access to the standard Google web listings, definitions, calculations and answers to simple questions.
Users in the USA have some extra features, such as weather and movie times.
If you want to give Google SMS a try then there is a mobile emulator that you can have a go on, both in the USA and the UK.
Add comment July 10th, 2005