Would GOOG-411 Please Shut Up?
Valleywag blogger Paul Boutin spent a half hour speed-dialing Google's new free, telephone directory service [800-GOOG-4110]. The verdict: Its speech-recognition and geo-mapping algorithms outperformed Verizon and AT&T's humans.
According to Boutin, GOOG-411 figured out that "Dover-Foxcroft" was a town in Maine rather than sending him to an operator and it deduced that "H H Brown Shoes" meant a store in nearby Dexter.
The service "let me talk with my mouth full" but "makes an irritatingly un-Googly first impression on callers," he wrote. It answers not with a hello, but with a foreboding "calls recorded for quality" and then plays a randomly-selected voice shouting "GOOG-411!"
Google's technology might be smarter than Sprint's, "but its prerecorded human voice talent makes me want to kill," Boutin said. Plus, on one call, after several seconds of whirring and sputtering, a voice announced: "We're a little swamped right now, but just call back, and we'll try to help you out."
Join the Discussion
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus