Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone.
To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.
Using this service, you can:

• search for a local business by name or category … You can say “Giovanni’s Pizzeria” or just “pizza”.
• get connected to the business, free of charge.
• get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone … Just say “text message”.

And it’s free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider.

Check out more about this new service at Google Labs.

Check out the cheat sheet to see more about what the service can do

When you are asked for city and state, you can:

• say the city and state like “beverly hills california”.
• say the zip, e.g. “nine-oh-two-one-oh”.
• type the zip code using the key pad, e.g. “9-0-2-1-0″.

When you are asked for a business name or category, you can:

• say a business name, like “Giovanni’s pizzeria”.
• say a category name, like “hardware stores”.
• press “1″ to spell the name of the business or category using your keypad.
• say “go back” to change city and state.

To spell the business name or category using the keypad:

• press “1″ after you hear “What business name or category?”.
• enter one digit per letter and we will do the rest. For instance, you would spell “toys” as “8″, “6″, “9″, “7″.

Note: once you’ve pressed “1″ for spelling you can still say the business name or category.
The spelling feature will also be active for the rest of the call; if you go back, you won’t need to press “1″ again.

When browsing through results, you can:

• say the listing number (e.g. “number two”) or press the corresponding key (e.g. “2″) to choose a listing or navigate between results.
• say “go back” to change business or category.
• say “start over” or press “*” to start from the main menu.

Once you have chosen a listing number, you can:

• say “text message” or press “9″ to receive a text message, when you are calling from a mobile phone.
• say “details” to get more information about the current listing.
• say “connect me” to skip all the talk and be connected to the listing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 7:38 am and is filed under Software.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.