[HCRA] Really Cool: ' No More Calling 411 From Cell '

[Daniel J. Sullivan]

Hartford Courant


http://www.courant.com/technology/hc-techlede1027.artoct27,0,1420118.story?coll=hc-headlines-technology

No More Calling 411 From Cell

New Text-Message Search Engines Get Information, Save The $1.50 Fee

By YUKI NOGUCHI
Washington Post

October 27 2005

One of the coolest things about technology is discovering new ways to save a
buck or two - in this case the $1.50 fee that some wireless phone carriers
charge for each call to 411.

If you know how to send a text message on your mobile phone - and millions
do - then listings for a neighborhood deli or the closest ATM or even a
weather forecast or stock quote are as close your mobile phone.

And it's pretty much free, unless your phone plan charges text-messaging
fees. For some, that's as much as 10 cents per message.

Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., as well as the smaller 4Info Inc., are now
offering text-messaging search features that allow users to send a query to
the search engines via text message and receive a reply within seconds.

The three work in a similar fashion: To use the service, a user sends a text
message with the search request to the five-digit number for YAHOO (92466)
or GOOGL (46645) or 4INFO (44636).

For example, text "pizza 06119" to GOOGL, and within seconds you'll get text
responses with the addresses and phone numbers for pizza joints in West
Hartford's 06119 ZIP code.

Alternatively, the same search request can be processed by typing "West
Hartford pizza," or narrowed by the specific restaurant by entering "Pizza
Hut 06119" in the text message.

Yahoo, Google and 4Info all let you search for weather by typing in "Weather
06119" or, alternatively, just "W 06119" or "W West Hartford." All three
also offer stock quote searches by typing in the company's ticker symbol.

But there are also searches unique to each provider. Google offers driving
directions and answers to simple questions - U.S. population, for example -
while 4Info offers more of the unexpected, such as Fantasy sports
statistics, recipes for your favorite cocktail or sports scores (just type
in the team's name).

So far, searching by text is still a relatively new idea. In August,
M:Metrics Inc., a Seattle research firm, found 3.6 million people had used
text search, compared to the 12.1 million people who conducted a search on
their wireless phones by logging on to the phone's Web connection.

Search-by-text is a service that is expected to gain in popularity as the
big search-engine companies compete to keep users of their desktop search
products, said Mark Donovan, an analyst with M:Metrics.

"Mobile search is another front in that war," said Donovan, who said he
often uses the services, even while sitting in front of a computer.

Even though an estimated 95 percent of cellphones today are capable of
sending and receiving text messages, there hasn't been much done to promote
search-by-text. Donovan said word of mouth and increased marketing will
bring more users.

For now, providing the service for free does not generate any direct
revenue, but it makes users more loyal to the Yahoo brand, said Nicole
Leverich, a spokeswoman for Yahoo.

Still, it's likely to eat into the revenue wireless carriers get for
directory assistance.

Even if search engines eventually start charging a small fee to use its
text-search service, it will cost far less than directory assistance today,
M:Metrics' Donovan said.

"Carriers are excited about seeing increased use of cellphones but are
ambivalent about losing that revenue," he said.