Google’s Gaggle of Mobility Apps
Posted on December 3, 2007
Filed Under David Morton, Google, Tips, iphone
It is no secret that Google is betting big on the mobile space. What started as a timid foot in the water has quickly turned into the technical equivalent of a double gainer off the high dive. Take a stroll over to Google Mobile and you will find mobile enhanced versions of a dozen Google offerings.
While the applications themselves are good (some are very good), the truly interesting part is what these applications and other Google moves represent.
On the conservative side, they represent a smart and serious investment by Google in the future of mobility. They are already the 800 8,000 lb gorilla in the PC based Internet space. It only makes sense for Google to start moving their products to a market that dwarfs the PC, the mobile phone market. On the other side you could read into the wild rumors that Google is going to build and operate their own cellular network and drive the traditional players out of business.
While Google has announced it will participate in the upcoming wireless auction, I believe that their intentions lie somewhere in between. But that is a discussion for another day.
Today I want to begin taking a look at some of the existing applications. I’m not going to go through each application, but along the way, I will point out few twists or interesting uses. If you have some others, please share them in the comments.
Google SMS
Google SMS is one of the first applications that grabbed my interest on my mobile phone. At the time I had given up using my Treo. I had tried and abandoned my BlackBerry and Windows Mobile (WM) device. I was gleefully back to the age of simplicity with a Motorola RAZR.
The RAZR was easy to carry, but having grown accustomed to being able to use the Internet to lookup a phone number, I bristled at having to pay a dollar or more to make a call to directory assistance. Fortunately Google had been hard at work with a solution.
Google SMS is a pretty simple service. Let’s say it’s the weekend and you’re in the mood for breakfast, but you want to call ahead to check on the wait. Open your phone and send a quick text message to “google” (466453), and a few seconds later the number and address are on your phone.
If your phone supports it, you can select the phone number from the returned text message and dial it directly.
A Few Details
Here are the details of what I did:
1) Created a new Short Message Service (SMS aka text message)
2) Typed “orig pancake 98101″ in the message (without the quotes of course).
3) Sent the message to 46645 (Googl on your phone keypad). The Google SMS web site says to use the full 466453 number, but I often leave out the last digit without problems on T-Mobile and AT&T. Your mileage may vary.
A few seconds later, I received a text message with the two closest locations for the Original Pancake House.
As far as I know, this service is only available in the US (please send email or post comment if you know otherwise).
A Couple of Tips
You may have noticed that when entering the message, I put the zip code for downtown Seattle (98101) rather than typing out Seattle, WA in my text message. It was just easier to type the zip code.
Instead of a business name, Google SMS will recognize a whole slew of options. For example “Chinese food 98105″ will find listing for chinese food near the University of Washington campus in Seattle. Some other useful options:
- Check flight information - Type the airline (or two letter code) and the flight number and it will return flight departure, arrival and gate information.
- Weather - send the word “weather” followed by the city name or zip code.
- Simple language translation - Send the letter ‘t’ followed by the word to be translated, the word “to” and the destination language. For example the message “t friend to spanish” will return “friend in English means amigo in Spanish”.
- Save typing - Set your preferred location by sending “set location” followed by a city name or zip code. Then the next time you type “pizza” or “movies” you will get the info for listing near your preferred location.
Click here for a complete list Google SMS keywords or to try a web simulation.
Why Does This Matter?
There is little doubt that Google SMS can be a very interesting service, especially if you already use SMS a lot and know your way around the keypad (or have a iPhone or other smartphone), but short of saving a dollar here and there why should you care?
Simply put, this simple service is a prime example of the power of mobility.
This service gives a user access to key portions of a vast data store through a very simple, low bandwidth connection. Imagine how we might apply these these simple principles to use for other applications…. Suddenly corporate directories might be more accessible to employees or sales information is at your fingertips. All without having to break out a laptop and search for the nearest Starbucks.
Google SMS is one of their earliest mobile applications. More importantly it and other moves by Google has made recently demonstrate that Google understands the power of mobility.
We’ll look at some of more of Google’s Gaggle of Mobile Applications in a future article.
In the mean time, drop me a line or leave a comment on how you use these applications or what you think.
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About Me
David Morton (mortonmanor)
Director, Mobile Strategies
University of Washington
We are on the cusp of making great strides towards the promise of mobility. This isn't a site about me, but rather I wanted a place where people can come to learn and talk about how the promise is being realized.
contact me: mortonmanor at freshlymobile dot com
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