Anybody of a certain age who knows me well knows that I have a love of mobile text messaging matched only by Japanese teenage girls. So it’s only inevitable that I should love this new feature from Google.
Google have rolled out a new feature that allows users to submit queeries using SMS messaging on their phone. Examples include lookups of telephone numbers in specific cities either by city and state or zip code, measurement conversions, product pricing from Froogle, mathematical calculations and snippets from web sites. The list goes on and on. Sweet sweet sweet!
Three thouhgts that come immediately to mind as great additions to this functionality could be hotspot locations in a given locality, a movie listings feature and perhaps some snippets of the very latest news stories on a given topic.
This is a longshot from the systems integration side of the house, but if the wireless carrier could also send along some location information in case the customer doesn’t know where they’re located that would be sweet and perhaps even make a functionality like directions a possibility. Now, the downside to that could be if you can send the location along with an SMS to Google, significant others could somehow turn that around to discover they’re better half’s text message from a boys’ or girls’ night out is really a cover from a clandestine booty call on the side. I know AT&T Wireless already have a “find your friends” option for GSM customers who can get a general view of where other AT&T Wireless customers are located… I wonder how many people have signed up for this.
