Phone Phun

What do they call those weird phone numbers that they want you to text stuff to during all the TV shows? You know it's not a regular phone number, because it isn't long enough, but they must work, because there's so many of them out there.

Common Short Codes (CSCs) are shorthand phone numbers you can use on your cell phone to vote in polls, enter contests, or otherwise access special content. You've seen them on TV: just text "1", "2", or "3" to some five- or six-digit number, or maybe a word spelled out.

So what do you do if you're eager to participate in whatever survey or promotion you just saw, but you totally missed that number? Will they ever hear back from you? Will your vote count?

There is actually an agency that is tasked with keeping track of all these numbers. An outfit called Neustar, who is under contract to maintain these numbers, has an official list but apparently inclusion in it is voluntary by the number owner, and it isn't always up to date. Another source for this information is located at The US Common Short Code WHOIS Directory.

Don't miss out on all the fun.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm and is filed under SMS fun. 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.