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Try Out GOOG-411 From Anywhere In The World With Skype

Have you heard about GOOG-411? If not, I suggest you read about it first.

GOOG-411 is a telephone based directory service for businesses and shops in the U.S.A. You call the toll free number and then you try to find what you want using voice commands. The system uses voice recognition to process your input and tries to find what you’re looking for. See here for a list of voice commands.

Now us poor folks in India (and most other countries) cannot try out this service since our telecom providers have never let us call 1-800 numbers. I’ve tried from BSNL landlines and cell phones.

However, I have a solution for you. I discovered this when I installed the latest version of Skype (the well known internet telephony service). Skype made all the phone numbers in web pages clickable. This means that when I click a number on a website, Skype is launched and it attempts to dial that number. You cannot connect to standard numbers since you need Skype credit (money in your Skype account) for that. However I’ve found out that I’m able to access the GOOG-411 service perfectly!

All you have to do (after you install Skype) is click the number here (1-800-4664-411) or on the GOOG-411 home page to get connected. You also need a mike for this (obviously).

I dialled the service to check it out and here’s how it went (the text in quotes is what I spoke into my microphone):

Calls recorded for quality.

What city and state?

“Washington, Washington”

Washington D.C.

What business name or category?

“Hotel”

‘Hotel’. If that’s not right say ‘go back’.

3. Capital Hilton

“Number Three”

Number three, Capitol Hilton on Capital Street, Northwest

I’ll connect you…

At this point the phone started ringing on the other side! I cancelled the call immediately. What the heck, I was under the impression that this cost money. Looks like Google is absorbing the cost and providing this service absolutely free (for now, atleast).

I’d like you to show people this post so that they can try this out with Skype.

Note: This service is U.S. only. When the system asks for city and state, they mean a U.S. city and state. Don’t think saying “Chennai, Tamilnadu” will somehow get you Indian data. I bet some people will.