Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411
googleblog.blogspot.com
googleblog.blogspot.com
Google provides lots of free services and I think it's awesome that they try stuff, innovate and then pull out when it's not working for them.
I think it's good they gave everyone a month's notice and provided a txt based alternative. It would have been nice if they'd also pointed to some voice alternatives provided by "competitors" though.
411 was a fairly useful service, and while shutting it down is probably the right business move, it pushes me more and more to move my primary email account and diversifying my advertising.
Oh, also Google Voice. When they bought that they changed my number on me and I basically stopped using it as a result.
Okay, to be serious though: this service never made it to Canada so I only got to use it once while visiting the USA. It sounded pretty cool and I know you'll miss it.
Seeing as this is HN, though, this is an obvious opening for a startup right? I mean, Google clearly doesn't think the service was worthwhile but much of HN is lamenting its loss.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/article692565...
http://www.amazon.com/28213EE1-Advanced-Cordless-Directory-A...
There should be more voice apps like GOOG 411, not less.
Main example: it used to be if you had someone's address in your contacts, you could hold down the search button until the voice search prompt came up, then say "Navigate to <person's name> and it would pull up Google Navigation on that person's address.
Around 2.2 Google seems to have removed the ability to search your contacts from Google Maps. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a decision that searching your own contacts won't generate ad revenue. In any case, what happens now is it gives you a popup of search results for that name in your vicinity and asks you to choose, usually there are like 20.
That’s part of the point isn’t it? Google extends the service for free (for a limited time) and people without smartphones grow to like it (glad that 1800FREE411 is still there) and then when the free service is withdrawn that iota more of dump-phone users are more inclined to buy a smartphone.
Smartphones may be growing like crazy, but there are still vastly more dumb-phones actually in peoples’ hands. Big market, right?
Same with TV; I don't own one, but I wish the cable companies would kill a few shitty cable TV channels and use that bandwidth for Internet data instead.
That place was delicious.
I try to keep this in mind with respect to all "free" products, including others from Google. E.g. Google Apps Standard: Nice while it lasts, but don't invest in its sticking around.
GOOG-411 wasn't ad supported so they didn't make any money off of it. It seemed like it was being run in order to collect voice data to create better speech recognition algorithms. Now that many have smartphones, they're getting that data in a cheaper way and, ultimately, in a way that they can monetize easier. Rather than paying 800-number charges for everyone to call into (and pay while the call was connected), people are using their iPhone and Android devices to give Google voice data.
I think Google Voice is the more likely service to get canned. Phone charges can become burdensome while bandwidth is essentially free when you're Google's size (since I'm guessing they're working off peering agreements more than buying bandwidth). Even if they were buying bandwidth, bandwidth is something with lots of competitors and very low regulatory charges. Phone connections are different.
Apps Standard has been on my mind because it is currently a useful solution for a few small businesses I know, but I caution them about becoming over-reliant.
(I've argued the cost efficiency of Premier, but they are watching every nickle and dime, at present. Hopefully, if the free Standard version does go away, Premier or similar will remain -- I mean, Google's been been engaging in large, long term Apps contracts with outfits quite capable of "lawyering up" -- and at a price that is manageable.
I know: I'd just plunk down the money, for something that is business critical. But, it's not my call. Their initial use is not business critical, but that's a slippery slope.)
P.S. I haven't researched nor thought it through, but my perception of Voice has been as a partial workaround and/or escape hatch for carrier lock in. For the time being, it helps keep the pressure on.
Longer term? Well, rumors are that Google has invested in a LOT of backbone capacity. Voice may be a step in capturing interactive content transfer, and the advertising/marketing niches that exist both within it and from analysis of resulting meta-data. It may also offer some direct revenue; they already charge (U.S. customers) for foreign calls.
Hmm... will Google roll out a SIP telecommunications service, at some point, to go along with their professional Apps offers? (Maybe the regulation would be far too hairy; otherwise, it would seem a likely cross marketing opportunity, at least until such communications become more fully integrated into a more general communications paradigm, if ever.)
On the bright side, they integrated it into google maps for mobile, and it's pretty slick. Now if only I had a data plan.