Free 411 Services
Monday, January 31st, 2011All good things must come to an end. If you've become dependent on Google's GOOG-411, you know that it's gone the way of the dodo. What you thought was a nifty free service, was in fact an easy way for Google to grab samples of speech for its various voice recognition projects. Now that they've got all their samples, you're on your own trying to figure out who's where, which means you might be tempted to pay your carrier a boatload of cash for calling their 411 service. As it turns out, there are other places to look for this same information for everybody's favorite price: free.
Microsoft has their own voice recognition information system. You can reach their BING-411 service at 1-800-BING-411 (1-800-246-4411) or use CALL-411 (1-800-225-5411). Either way, you speak, they respond, and hopefully you get where you need to go.
Another option is the FREE-411 service. All you need to do is call 1-800-373-3411, listen to a brief ad, and you're on your way. If you like, they can text you with directions to where you're headed.