by If you aren’t texting the questions in your life to “GOOGLE” (466-453) on your iPhone, or other smart phone, then you aren’t really living an untethered life. GOOGLE SMS is a free service — though other carrier charges may apply to your SMS phone plan — that instantly answers your questions and helps you win arguments and wager bar bets. As you can see in the shot below, I was able to get an instant response from Google when I asked for “Weather Los Angeles.” I was not successful in getting Google to tell me Julie Chen’s age or what year Hawaii gained statehood.
When I asked Google SMS for the “Time in India” I was instantaneously texted back with the correct day and time.
Unfortunately, Google did not know the “Nebraska state bird” or understand “Pounds into Stone.”
When I changed my SMS inquiry from “Pounds into stone” into the more formal, “How many stone per pound,” Google shot the answer right back to me.
When I next asked for the definition of WordPunk, Google curiously offered me the Javits Convention Center instead — even though we know the answer is already out there.
I love Tahini, and when I asked Google for “Tahini 68505” — I didn’t get back any results for places that serve Tahini in Lincoln, Nebraska.
When I became more precise and asked Google to SMS me results for “Indian food 68505” I was given a single response:
When I asked Google about “Big Brother 11 10012” — I was hoping to get TV listings back for the Big Brother television show in the New York City market.
What Google sent me instead was a link for “Big Brothers Big Sisters” and, strangely, “Big Won King” restaurant.
When I’d finished testing Google SMS for this article, the following text from Google appeared on my phone:
I guess Google was still obsessing and churning 20 minutes after I’d asked about WordPunk and, frankly, we wouldn’t want it any other way!
I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be easier to just Google the information using the browser, David. It seems the SMS service gets confused a little too easily. Google on the browser knows what a wordpunk is! 🙂
I guess the SMS version is faster than having to fire up a browser, Gordon. Sometimes you have phones that can only do text and not web.
I do not have data plan on my phone but do have unlimited messaging. That is why Google SMS makes a lot of sense for me and I use it when reading classical books for definitions of difficult words (English is a second language for me).
Hi elena —
Yes, and Google SMS with Google Voice makes their free SMS service even greater, deeper, and grander than ever!