@bbqsandwich:

A phone book is well and good, but if you're driving it's just convenient to dial into an info service. And you don't have to find a place to pull over in order to use it.

Unless you're a daredevil and like to pore through the book while driving. In that case Dennis Haysbert and Allstate would like a word...

charliew77

@bbqsandwich:

Yeah, I got one of those too. It's called the address book on my iPod. That said, there's a use for 411 services: when you're someplace that is unfamiliar to you. For me, that could easily be the East Bay (SF metro area). 411 services aren't designed to replace your address book; they're designed to augment it.

GOOG-411 works okay, but I don't consider it lightning fast. I'm not sure how things are ranked (if at all).

cv

I have a great tool that lets me look up multiple numbers quickly and for free when I'm out and about, and there are no problems with voice recognition or mistyping a name. It's the phone book I keep in my car.

bbqsandwich

I just tried it for the grocery store nearest my house, which has four stores in my city. I got four hits:
1) Their main store, not near me.
2) Their corporate office (I knew the street Goog named did not have a store, so I had to look up what it was).
3 and 4) "No address listed"
Not exactly helpful, Goog.

GBMax

I've been using this since it was first launched, and I love it! I use it when I'm sitting at home and too lazy to find the yellow pages! :)

thebigm42

Wow, talk about synchronicity. I've been using it for a few months myself (not gonna pay MetroPCS, fo shiz). It does require a little bit of patience, but comes in real handy on the fly. Just last Friday our office was talking about free 411 services and I chimed in about the ol' goog. Not more than an hour later, I spotted my first goog411 billboard.

Google, are you messin' with me?

jaxun

@jackquack:
Agreed :(
I'm only 3 states away :(
At least Microsoft is next door :)

Charli Wag

I am starting to feel REALLY left out in the cold up here in Canada. Google never gives us anything. No transit integration, no streetview, no goog-411, no grand central, no that thing with the businesses where you send google info on them for 10$. I'm probably missing more, but that is more than it should be. We are right next door for googleness sake.

jackquack

I've used it about 5 to 6 times, and all without any problem. It's quite fast, and the voice recognition is pretty spot on. However, I just used it yesterday, looking for "The Garment District" and when the system tried to repeat the name back to me, it sounded strange. I didn't really know what it was saying back to me. I know what it was TRYING to say, but it gave me the chance to finally ask the system for details, and that helped.

charliew77

I use it regularly, love it. but I was surprised and a little weirded out to see a highway billboard advertising it in my small western New York town. That logo was something I am supposed to see online only, not when driving to Mighty Taco. worlds collided.

zenigmatic

The weird chattering noises are the VO guys going "beep boop bop boop beep".It's creepy until you know what it is.

I use it often. Works well, butl you're tying to find acronym named places like "CTG" Then it can be tough.

Tony of TonyandJuan.com

I tried it out for the first time this morning and it didn't work out so well for me.

I had an eye doctor appointment and didn't realize they'd moved, so I arrived at the old location to find a kolache place instead of my eye doctor. I also didn't have the office's number on me. So called GOOG-411, said my city and state and then said the doctor's name. I could never get it to successfully recognize the doctor's name via voice and keying the name into the handset didn't work either (though I was attempting to do it and drive at the same time, I know, bad, bad, bad). I ended up calling AT&T's 411 to talk to a person (their voice rec. botched it too).

I'll give it a few more chances before I give up on it.

PS The weird chattering noises that you hear after saying your query are kinda creepy.

ttrentham

Great service, way better than any paid-for 411. My only gripes are that Goog411 is a little trigger happy at automatically connecting me to the listing, when I really want more info first.
And, like all voice-recognition stuff, calls do sometimes end with me screaming obscenities into the phone because the system doesn't understand me. Still, I use it all the time.

hector7g

I've been using this for months, and it's great. Never had a problem.

enriquez the water bottle