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Tuesday November 25, 2008 12:27 pm
Calling 411 Is Free, If You Know Where To Look
So you don’t have an iPhone or other web-enabled phone, you’re away from your computer and you’re tired of shelling out your precious greenbacks for 411 services; is there any other option? Well, you could just keep on calling 411, the phone companies love it when you do that – a quick check reveals that Verizon charges $1.49 per call and both AT&T and Sprint charge a piggy bank busting $1.79 per call – or you could give Google or Microsoft a call, they’ll take care of you for free. Google’s service, “GOOG-411” can be accessed by calling 1-800-GOOG-411, while Microsoft’s “Live Search 411” can be accessed by calling 1-800-CALL-411.
Both systems use voice recognition technology (you won’t be able to speak with a real human) to provide directions to and phone numbers of millions of destinations across the United States and Canada, connecting you to your destination and sending you a text message containing the requested information if you so desire.
Which service is right for you? You’ll have to try them both out and decide for yourself. I surprised myself by choosing the Microsoft service as my favorite. Stranger things have happened…
Check out the video (up top) for an introduction to the Google service.
- Related Tags:
- 411, at&t, att, cell phones, cellphones, directory assistance, goog 411, goog-411, goog411, google, google 411, live search 411, microsoft, mobile phones, phone numbers, search, sprint, verizon
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Comments:
Call 1-800-YELLOWPAGES. The voice recognition is great. If it can’t find what you are looking for you get to talk to an American for free! Thanks AT&T!
Unfortunately Google’s voice recognition is awful.
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For your Canadian readers - you can also call 310-0411 (details of the service listed here - http://www.yellowpages411.ca/) - which provides service in English and French, voice automated, gives you access to every business in Canada and is free to use.
The data provider behind this service is Yellow Pages Group and the http://www.yellowpages.ca platform which is also the data provider for Goog-411 in Canada as well.
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Hey Patrick,
There’s also 1-800-FREE411, which is more complete than most free 411 numbers in that it offers business, gov’t, and residential listings (most of our competitors offer only business listings). Moreover, we’ll text Mapquest driving directions straight to your cell phone—pretty convenient if, as you said, you don’t have a smartphone and you’re already out and about.
Completely free (paid for by a couple 10-second ads).
Best,
Jay
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