Google SMS

Talking on the phone has never been something I enjoy. By far, my favorite way to use my phone is to use the SMS text messaging service. In a previous article, I wrote about 20 cool things most people probably don’t know you can do with your SMS service. If you are like me, you’ve grown accustomed to relying on the internet to provide you with instant answers to all of your questions from “what time does the bank close” to “what was the band that sang that one song?” But even if you don’t have internet access on your cell phone, you aren’t necessarily cut off from all the answers. You can get answers to many of these just by sending text messages to various service providers.

I find Google SMS services to be the most useful in my daily life. If you send a text message to “GOOGL” (“46645”) with your search text, you get an instant reply. Here’s some of my favorite Google SMS searches.

Q&A
Here’s how it works. Maybe you have a question. For instance, you want to know when President Obama was born. You whip out your handy phone and text “Barack Obama Birthday” to Google’s SMS number. Within seconds, you should get a reply something like this (complete with the reference website):

Movies
Texting “movies 48917” will return numbered list of movies currently showing. For example, I received:

If you reply to that message with the number for a specific movie, Google SMS sends you the times that movie is playing. So I reply with the number 2 (or if you already know what movie you want to see, you can skip the first step and just send “gamer 48917” as your text message). Google’s response:

Weather
Texting “weather lansing” (or “weather 48917”) returns something like this:
…and so much more
The following list of additional searches and sample queries comes from Google SMS’s own page. One real handy thing is that Google SMS will remember your zip code once you set it (text “location 48917” or “location Lansing” to Google to set your default location). Once you’ve set your location, you can simply text “movies” instead of “movies 48917.”

Search Feature	Sample Query
Local	sushi 94040
Glossary	define zenith
Sports	score red sox
Stocks	stock tgt
Zip Codes	zip code 72202
Directions	directions pasadena ca to 94043
Maps	map 5th avenue new york
Flights	flight aa 2111
Area Codes	area code 650
Products	price ipod player 40gb
Airlines	united airlines
Translation	translate hello in french
Web Snippets	web hubble telescope
Calculator	1 us pint in liters
Currency	8 usd in yen
Airports***	sfo airport
Help	help local
Local time	time new york

Text messaging defined

Someone commented the other day, “Remember when all you could do on a phone was talk?” And I did remember. It wasn’t that long ago. Phones have changed so fast that some of us may not understand their capabilities anymore. There are a number of cell phones that can go on-line (yes, like a computer), allowing people to use email, get directions, and all sorts of other things. These are the more expensive phones. Many phones have cameras built into them; others even have the ability to record video.

A more basic function of nearly all cell phones these days is text messaging. With this capability, a user can select a cell phone number, then type that person a little message instead of dialing that person. The message is sent to the person’s cell phone, where it waits to be read until the person is available. Receiving a text message is like receiving a voice message (in that the message is there waiting for you, and you read/listen at your convenience).
Text messaging does not require a cell phone to use the Internet; systemically it is the same as making a call. The catch is that many phone service providers charge extra for text messaging (sending and receiving), and if text messaging is not part of the service plan the company may charge a fee for each message (received and sent). There are all kinds of shortcuts in text-talk, like LOL (laughing out loud – what you type in response to a message that made you do that), JK (just kidding – something that might be obvious if people could actually hear each other), P911 (parent 911), and too many more.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with texting may wonder what the major attraction is. You must be used to talking to actual persons and having conversations where you can read the inflections in the other’s voice and hear laughter or uncomfortable silence. (As in, actual human conversation…) While I am a huge fan of such communication, let me try to name some of the highlights of texting.
1) Allows people to communicate in quiet environments: work, school, library, subway, commuter train, bus. (You can determine if this is good or not. Teachers can hate cell phones because students sometimes try to text each other during tests.)
2) Lets a person send a quick note without having to risk getting into a long phone conversation.
3) Less intrusive than a call. Solves the problem of, “I should call, but I just want to leave a message, I don’t want to intrude” since it is only a message.

There are loads of people who certainly must know of many more highlights, but that’s all I’ve got, since I always prefer face-to-face communication, however tedious, tiring, or awkward it may get at times.
 L8R.

SMS/Text Message Tricks

or How I beat the iPhone at its own game

She's got internet. How come I don't?

In one sense, I’m kind of stuck behind the times. I don’t have internet on my phone. I know that I should “get with the program.” I’m aware that I’m a sorry excuse for a tech nerd. Therefore, my blog post cannot possibly be relevant, right? Well, if you have a moment, I thought I could share some of the things I’ve come to learn about text messages.

Most cell phone plans include the ability to send text messages to and from your phone. Usually you have to pay a dime or 25 cents per message. I think all of the providers now let you purchase bundles of 100 or 1,000 (or whatever) which decreases the cost per message down to $0.01 or less. These short, quick messages (in the U.S. this is typically limited to 160 characters or less) are apparently popular among teens – I don’t know any, so I can’t confirm this.

Even if you aren’t into texting your pals, I submit to you these reasons to take a fresh look at your phone’s text capabilities and consider adding some text messages to your cell plan.

Some of the things I bet you didn’t know you could do with SMS text messaging:

1. Movie times at your local cinema
2. Driving directions
3. Stock quotes
4. Traffic updates
5. Weather updates
6. Translate words to and from English
7. Send email
8. Watch your auctions on eBay
9. Post to your blog
10. Compare prices for merchandise
11. Find wifi spots
12. Check whether your flight is on time
13. Keep up with Twitter
14. Get alerts and add events to google calendar
15. Track your package
16. Convert metric to english measurements and back again
17. Calculate math
18. Receive AMBER alerts
19. Get RSS feeds

and my favorite:

20. Find the nearest restaurant. This is where, according to my limited and unbiased experience, TEXT BEATS iPHONE. Yes, I mean it!

I’m driving back to my place with a friend. He has a mad hankering for some Chinese take-out. I can’t think of any asian restaurants between our location and my house. To prove his “tech cred,” he whips out his iPhone and waits for Safari to load, navigates to a search page, types in his query, and then he waits some more. “Is House of Ing nearby?” he asks. No, I tell him. “Where is P.F. Changs?” No, that’s not on the way home. It’s all the way on the other side of town. “Is the Apple Jade on Clippert Street close by?” No, no. You’re way off.

I pull over into a gas station and set my phone to the task. I type the word “chinese” into a text message and send that to 46645 (or “GOOGL”). In less than TWO SECONDS, I get a reply message with the address and phone number for three restaurants in my zip code. If I replied to that message, they would have sent me even more restaurants. That’s right. In a mere 10 seconds, I receive more accurate and pertinent information than he gets after five minutes using the internet connection on his iPhone.

I don’t mean to gloat. I am totally jealous of everyone with an iPhone. But even if you do have an iPhone, when time counts, when your appetite won’t wait for your “edge” connection to find a network to use, when you are just dying to know the Spanish for “where is the bathroom,” you might want to ask the 14 year-old next to you to text you the answer.

Tech Corner: Google SMS
Wikipedia SMS entry
16 more things to do with text