Google threw a new product called Goog-411 into Google Labs today - a free telephone based information service that could replace toll 411 calls. About 2.6 billion 411 calls are made in the U.S. each year, and it is a $7 billion/year market.
Goog-411 can be accessed by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411. The product is completely automated and there is no way to talk to a human for additional or clarifying information. You tell it your city and state, and then ask for a specific business or business category. In my tests the product was excellent. Although the voice recognition was only working at about 70% efficiency, I just said “back” and retried when it didn’t understand what I said. Results are spoken back or text messaged back to you, and you are automatically put through to the phone number requested.
GOOG-411 is using Google’s normal local business information available on Google Maps and elsewhere. Businesses that want to add or correct data can do so here.
The product competes head on with Jingle Networks, which has taken 6% market share in the U.S. 411 business over the last year. AT&T is also experimenting with free 411 calls. None of these products come anywhere close to as good as TellMe’s rich client business information tool for mobile phones, but few phones support TellMe at this time (TellMe was recently acquired by Microsoft).
The paid 411 market is so dead. I’m betting these free alternatives take at least 50% market share within a couple of years.
Update: This is actually a product that Google’s been testing in various formats for some time. Steve Poland (a regular contributor here) is pointing me to some posts (and here) by Greg Sterling from last year that discuss this. The earliest reports on this are from October 2006, and the service may be from an acquisition of 1-877-520-FIND. More information here.
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Nah, it’s not dead. I’m thinking of reviving it with a Digg-clone model.
Thoughts?
As a long-time user of Free411 - I have to say Goog 411 is much, much better. Especially the fact that it connects you directly to the business and doesnt just give you the phone number.
interesting…looks like there’s more to this story. See update.
I used to love their SMS feature, but lately the results I get back from Google are way off. I’m wondering if the same will happen with this service. Will I just get frustrated because I’m connected to the wrong business? (This also happens once in awhile with 411 service.)
It will be intresting to see how Free411’s automated+human approach fairs against’ Goog411’s fully automated one. I wonder if end users care if they talk to a machine or a person, even if the machine interface might take longer in some cases. Also, would this boil down to a marketing dollars game eventually? I loved the Free411 model and the conversation of it on the TalkCrunch episode. A follow-up on that to get Josh’s opinions on Goog411 will be interesting.
I think the best part of this is the little sound effects it makes while it’s looking up a phone number. If you listen closely enough you can hear a human voice signing.
Could I add my name or fake business name to Google’s business index and let people get free calls to my home or mobile phone using the service since it’s a 1-800 number and forwards the call directly to the desired business?
Just a thought that quickly popped in my head.
this is freaking me. Google is in what industry again?
do you imagine a day if for example google employees go on strike and servers go down…
Check out all of the talking search engines on Read/WriteWeb:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/ar.....unched.php
it can be usefull for blind people
Google remind me of an hungry kid who want to eat from all the plates presented at the buffet. When do they stop?
Most likely Google is using Nuance Speech Technologies.
look for Google to expand to other Speech based offerings in the future.
This is a direct attempt by Google to make inroads by Google on TELLME’S turf !
520-Find was never a separate entity from Google. All the speech technology was pieced together in house….520-Find was just a cover to get user feedback and modify/test the speech app…then release under 1-800-GOOG-411. 1-800-FREE411 will soon be dropping all human operators to reduce avg call costs.
Notice how 2 years ago no one really thought telephony “411″ (directory assistance) pertained to search? Now it apparent that “411″ is the voice behavior entry point for mobile local search.
Maybe if 5 years ago Tellme positioned their voice portal 1-800-555-TELL to be 1-800-411-TELL free directory assistance service, instead of pushing a web/portal strategy, the value proposition to consumers would have been more clear, volume would be 10 fold what it is today, and that part of their business would be MUCH more valuable. Anyway, Tellme still clearly came out a winner.
Google is definitely using Nuance technology. They hired half the original (Menlo Park) Nuance development team. Nuance Founders Hy Murveit and Mike Cohen work there, as does Mike Hochberg.
5 years ago Tellme did position their voice portal to be search. They had all the restuarants, hotels, airlines car rental places, and would connect you free of charge. The problem is the cost/value. The ads weren’t worth nearly as much as the phone call costs. It’ll be interesting to see where Google takes this, but a phone call might cost them fifteen to twenty cents. What will the ad revenue be?
Michael,
Do you think that Google is using Nuance speech technologies ?
awating your response
Thanks,
Joshua
“Google remind me of an hungry kid who want to eat from all the plates presented at the buffet. When do they stop?”
Stop eating at a buffet??? - you must be joking.
—Star
I haven’t done a US PTO search (and in any case, pending patents don’t have to be published); but someone no doubt has one or more patents covering this technology/methodology. If they’re still pending issuance, the lawsuit battles could be a few years off…but with Google now in the game, those battles are sure to take place eventually…
There’s no way paid 411 is dead. The ease (and ignorance of 90% of the population) of just being able to dial 411 will be amazingly hard to stop or beat.
Rob
http://www.cadencecreek.ca
Its really nice to see the free 411 serice… Love you Google !
It Doesn’t work with Skypeout, it says “Busy”
Hmm, from the end user perspective, given the trends in storage available on the cell phone, wouldnt it be much better to have all the local business information available on the phone, with a nice browsable interface? Add in the gps/wifi placeware type geolocators, and you would cover most of the common scenarious for 411 requests…
Thoughts? Comments?
Oops, meant PlaceLab in the previous post..
frodar:
you are right, the business model is still yet to be proven.
My point was just about getting call volume. 5 yrs ago Tellme was cash rich and wanted to pump volume. They spent a lot of cash buying billboards for 1-800-555-TELL - positioned it as search…but the opening behavior and best value proposition for consumers is “411″. Then from that behavior gateway, you extend your deeper “search” experiences…eg. find local business by category.
If they did not have to expend so many resources gaining volume, then they could have focused more on monetization. SMS ad units is one idea. They are getting $40-60 CPM now for SMS. That’s $0.04-0.06 per SMS. The call costs are certainly below $0.05 per for tellme’s scale and automation.
My Cingular (old-ATT) account has a free information service (they charge for airtime). I’ve been using it a lot. Dial #121.
From the few tests I did now, Google’s voice recognition has been slightly better.
hmm I will have to try this out soon, I use 411 often
Yep, Free 411 just lost me … this works quicker, equally as accurate, and no stupid advertisements.
I’m in Rome… It Doesn’t work with my Skypeout… why???
there is also 1800-free-411
Now, if only Google could focus on making its search products useful again, instead of coming out with a billion of them that return inaccurate results.
I gave it my address and asked for a pizza place. It connected me to a store almost 50 miles away, even though there are dozens of pizza places within a few miles of my apartment.
Looks like another half-assed beta from Google.
I find this an interesting product launch as it may reveal Google’s next strategy step … Goog411 + Google base + Google CPA network = a yellow page killer.
- Seems like they are creating a value chain to attack the yellow pages (book & online)
- Free 411 calls (automated of course and most likely ranked by CPC)
- Free listings (craig’s list + yellow pages - possible with CPC over time)
- CPA deals (monetizable advertising targeting the local space = leads [i.e. fulfill a service-based business online] and start moving the $12 Billion in SMB advertising online in a meaningful way)
I don’t think the market is dead it’s just too expensive. I will start using it more often now that Google has a free service. I refuse to pay 2-3 dollars to find an address.
the GOOG text is money. gives you the st. address, phone number…what else do you need? (also good when drinking)
411 is sticking around for awhile. what a lot of people don’t realize is that the #1 customer of 411 directory assistance is bill collectors. they use live operators to get a number of listings, as well as do a number of residential searches with different spellings.
Google is using Nuance’s speech recognition engine, so is Tellme and 99% of all companies doing serious enterprise speech applications.
FOUR MIX adverts on the front page itself?
It’s hilarious and the event is sold out btw…
Its kind of odd you didn’t mention 1-800-free-411 by name.
Yes! Is there nothing they can’t do?? I give humble praise to our fearless leader. I look forward to them participating in every industry, soon it may be possible to live supported entirely (and exclusively) by Google services. God bless Google, in Google we trust.
… Google are kinda taking this too far.
Mike,
Your update above is very interesting…
Just last week a Saudi Prince invested in a 411 company. OUCH!!! though I’m quite sure he can afford to lose his investment:
Saudi Prince Al Hussein Bin Talal has invested in Toll Free Yellow Pages
in the amount of $32.5M in funding and an additional $7.5M upon met
milestones.
Toll Free Yellow Pages has not yet launched (” it is set to launch
sometime in the second half of 2007 “) but says it will be offering a
free alternative to 411 calls. To pay for for all of those free calls,
the company has partnered with DiscountMore.com to deliver consumers
comparison shopping over the phone.
The company and investors must be inspired by 1-800-Free-411 from Jingo
which surprised everyone by ringing up 100M calls as of last November
and now controls 6% of the U.S. market in 411 calls. TellMe and AT&T
have also apparently jumped into this proven market winner.
When it connects you to the other number, is it free?
I am surprised at some of the comments here. Google is in the business of bandwidth/community creation and then stuffing the community with pain-free, no-nuisance ads PAID BY THE COMPANIES NOT CONSUMERS. Brian Bowman has shown some of the path here. Jorge’s pizza quest is actually what it will be all about. Here the trick is selective push of advertisers. And Frodar “a phone call might cost them fifteen to twenty cents” might have been a true statement for another era, but not today, where call bandwidth is virtually free, even here in the old world. The real cost is in development/implementation and Google is burning a lot of cash here. I hope they can take it to the point of no return, so that even if they have to step back, the service quality and cost for consumer will stay at the levels they might push it. Google = free information.
My $0.02
This sucks, i work for verizon 411 and we go straight to humans, dont automate our jobs =( me, my mom, my sister, my cousin, and roomate all work there. dont ruin our families!
I work at VZ also, but they treat management and employees bad…dont think they’ll stick around. Bell bought out GTE and all former GTE offices are slowly dwindling down…rifts, etc
Anything computer is better thn Humanoids.
http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com
In terms of “business model” comments, I think Google has an advantage that 1-800-Free-411 doesn’t have: they already possess the business data. As they say on their FAQs page: “The local-business information used by Google Voice Local Search is the same as that on Google Maps. ” Whereas, if I remember the TalkCrunch podcast correctly, Free-411 SUBSCRIBED to the data available to all the existing 411 providers. I don’t remember what this subscription fee was (or if it was mentioned), but I would assume that by not having to pay it, Google possesses a cost advantage that would allow it to be more user-friendly (i.e., wait to figure out a less-intrusive way to monetize the listings than a pre-roll).
FYI, there’s an unpublished access dial-in number for Google Voice Local Search that doesn’t seem to suffer from the initial public calling overload, so you won’t get the occasional fast-busy signal I’ve experienced. Not a huge issue, but when you’re in the car, trying to find the address or phone number of a local pizza joint, a busy/redial is a hassle you can avoid: try the 877 flavor of the number
http://www.essistme.com/2007/0.....ever-busy/
Well Google Growing up rapidly with its new services and earning huge month of incomes day by day with its advertisements…
l wish google will see other parts of the world than usa. What about asia ? we want other google services in asia too!
keansmith - are you forgetting that 800-Free-411 has residential listings and google doesn’t?? Until Google gets the residential listings 800-Free-411 will still be a more complete product, ads aside.
Tom - True.
I just tried both, though, with kind of a tough listing: Caserta Vecchia in Brooklyn NY. Google got it on the second try. But Free-411 wasn’t even close. Try it and see what I mean.
Also, it doesn’t seem beyond the scope of Google to roll out listings that go beyond residential….as they have things in every category….like non-commercial stuff like “good places to see sunset,” etc.
Tellme answers 800-555-1212, Verizon’s (cell and landline) native 411, Cingular’s native 411, and some others. They answer about half of all directory assistance calls in the country right now.
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