Ask YC: Why does 800-GOOG-411 have a listing for "prostitutes" in SF?

11 points·plusbryan··10 comments

If you call 800-GOOG411 in San Francisco at least, and ask it for a "prostitute", it has an entry and responds, offering up a choice of hotels. What tech powers GOOG-411 that allows for something like this (it certainly doesn't respond to other nonsensical queries) - or did I just discover an easter egg?

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Finally a business model I can believe in. Despite not having an MBA I'm going to speculate that there may be slightly more demand for this service than for Facebook's digital fish in an aquarium.

Ha ha ha I guess so.

Why were you phoning up Google and asking for a prostitute?

Why, what do you use 411 for?

I haven't used 411 recently; but if I used it at all, I guarantee that my girlfriend wouldn't approve of me using it for that purpose.

There is a tall free number to get around using 411: (800)FREE-411. It has some commercials but it saves you a buck from not using 411. I wish I came up with that idea...

Umm... what do you think GOOG-411 is?

the worst part is that google started making 'acquisition noises' with the jingle guys (free 411) before goog 411 launched. google had some meetings with them, talked about the business and learned everything they could, but i hear the jingle guys (free 411) discovered it was all pretense, as google was actually just doing research for their own free 411 service (goog 411) that google was actively developing at the time.

"a tall free number"

Is that also something to do with prostitutes?

research for prostitutes.likebetter.com, of course

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