Wednesday, November 16, 2005

411SMS Introduces SMS Service

I discovered a new SMS service by 411SMS There's only one drawback though, instead of sending text request to a shortcode, you send the request to a phone number. That could be a problem when it comes to recalling what service to use.

Just register once, and save the number in your contacts.

Get business or residential listings, turn-by-turn driving directions, stock quotes, GPS coordinates, Wi-Fi hotspots, price comparison, language translations and definition/spelling checks.

Text "setup411" to 3109043113 or t411@411sms.com to initialize your cellphone and you will receive a text message response on your phone stating that setup is complete.

The GPS application could get legs if they could incorporate search results with it. To find specific coordinates type gps and the address or zipcode.

Try the Demo

Let me know what you like or dislike about this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used 411sms a number of times as an end-around paid directory assistance and never got results to justify the expenditure in text messages or the cumbersome process of keying sundry info into my text interface.
It's more like a websearch really. Not that that's bad but I wanted free DA, not another web search tool.
My experience:
1) As far as I know residential listings aren't available. I never could get one.
2) You have to define a text search, which gets increasingly difficult for numbers outside your areacode. You can use zipcode info, etc. but how often do you know the zipcode.
I live in San Francisco. Once, I searched for a restaurant in a town nearby and got a number for one in Indiana. Wonder what would happen if I wanted a number for a restaurant in Indiana?
3) 411sms returns multiple messages per search, so many that I stopped using it. Two, three at a time. I guess you can set it for less, but I assume the success rate drops. It wasn't wholly unsuccessful, but the success rate didn't justify the number of text messages I was wasting.
If you're looking for a substitute to paid DA, use someone like Free411 instead. You dial an access number, 1-800-Free411 (or program it into your phone), and, like regular DA, use either a voice automated system or talk to an operator.
You listen to a short message from a sponsor (sponsoring your use of DA) but it's free and you'll get your listed number, business or residential.
Hope you found this useful.

Anonymous said...

I used 411sms a number of times as an end-around paid directory assistance and never got results to justify the expenditure in text messages or the cumbersome process of keying sundry info into my text interface.
It's more like a websearch really. Not that that's bad but I wanted free DA, not another web search tool.
My experience:
1) As far as I know residential listings aren't available. I never could get one.
2) You have to define a text search, which gets increasingly difficult for numbers outside your areacode. You can use zipcode info, etc. but how often do you know the zipcode.
I live in San Francisco. Once, I searched for a restaurant in a town nearby and got a number for one in Indiana. Wonder what would happen if I wanted a number for a restaurant in Indiana?
3) 411sms returns multiple messages per search, so many that I stopped using it. Two, three at a time. I guess you can set it for less, but I assume the success rate drops. It wasn't wholly unsuccessful, but the success rate didn't justify the number of text messages I was wasting.
If you're looking for a substitute to paid DA, use someone like Free411 instead. You dial an access number, 1-800-Free411 (or program it into your phone), and, like regular DA, use either a voice automated system or talk to an operator.
You listen to a short message from a sponsor (sponsoring your use of DA) but it's free and you'll get your listed number, business or residential.
Hope you found this useful.