(Shock) Another Google service to add to my arsenal

I'm not sure what took me so long, but I finally had the opportunity to use Google's GOOG-411 service. And I gave it the test of all tests mainly because I was under severe duress at the time I used it.

I just finished a meeting with a networking contact at Starbucks and was halfway to a lunch meeting. That's when I looked at my dashboard and wondered why I hadn't mounted my GPS receiver. It took about two seconds for me to realize that the reason I hadn't mounted my GPS receiver was because my GPS receiver wasn't in the car with me. And the reason my GPS receiver wasn't in the car with me was because it was in my backpack.

I'll let you guess where my backpack was. Give yourself a point if you guessed Starbucks.

Hoping people are honest... but just to be safe

I like to think people are honest but I knew how tempting it would be if someone walked into Starbucks, noticed a backpack sitting near an empty table and decided to look inside, only to find a Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS unit.

Which is why I knew I had to call the Starbucks store right away, even though I had already turned around my car and would be back at the store in 10 minutes.

One problem. I had no idea what the phone number was for the Starbucks store I was just at.

Enter GOOG-411. GOOG-411 is Google's version of 411 directory assistance. Of course, since it is from Google, it means that it is cooler than the other directory assistance services out there and (surprise) it's free.

I felt kind of silly talking to automated voice prompts but I didn't care once I realized how easy it was to answer the questions and how well GOOG-411 understood my responses.

Sample call

My GOOG-411 "conversation" went something like this:

GOOG-411: "Say the business and the city and state."

Me: "Starbucks, Indianapolis, Indiana"

GOOG-411: "To narrow it down say a nearby intersection or enter a zip code."

Me: "Intech Commons Drive" (for some reason I remembered the street name from my original trip to the Starbucks)

GOOG-411: "Starbucks, Intech Commons Drive, I'll connect you."

Yup, it was that easy. The manager of the store told me my backpack was still sitting at the empty table and put it in safekeeping until I arrived.

If you want to try GOOG-411 for yourself, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone. But if you dial from your cell phone you can take advantage of added features such as receiving your directory information as a text message or even as a Google map to your desired location.