blog.ulfw.com

OK,

so I thought it would make sense to introduce a few of the cool products I or my colleagues are working on over the coming weeks. For mobile, I thought what better to start of with than Google SMS.

Why is that? First of all, not many people know about the product, yet it can be incredibly useful. And above all: it’s the only mobile product we have that has pretty much no requirements. Well okay, you have to be in the US and okay - you have to have a mobile phone, but that’s pretty much it. No data plan, no Java engine, no limited handset compatibilty.

So - what is it and how do I use it?

Google SMS is a cool service that allows you to ask it a large amount of questions and get immediate answers via text message. Unlike our search engine, we won’t be returning URLs, but rather end results. So, for example if you’d love to know how the weather in Beverly Hills will be, just send a text message with “Weather 90210″ (or ‘w 90210′ or ‘weather beverly hills, ca’ ) to GOOGLE (that’s 466453) and you’ll get the sunshine news right back as a text message. All it costs you is your carrier’s texting fee (note: they often offer plans with hundreds of text messages for just a few dollars a month).

What are other things I can ask Google SMS?

How about finding out about Sushi, a dry cleaner or any other local listings where you are? Text ’sushi 94040′ to GOOGLE.
Or you’d like to know how the Anaheim Ducks played yesterday night? Just text ‘anaheim ducks’ to 466453.
Then again, I prefer a good movie to a hockey game, so ‘movies 94040′ would give me more info on what’s running in my area right now.
Sometimes I wonder what strange words mean in my native tongue. By texting ‘translate love to German’ I get the 411 on what that weird word means.
Also cool for me to know is how my cars fuel consumption translates into proper measurements… ‘34mpg in liters per 100 km’ does the trick for me.
For more info, check out our mobile pages at http://mobile.google.com or go directly to http://sms.google.com to try some sample queries on the web.

Hi everyone,

wow - what a busy start at Google this was.

Right now, I’m covering a LOT of different mobile products, from SMS over Search, News and the new Gmail app up to a couple of other projects we’ll be working on for 2007, doing overall mobile research and will now be making sure that our website is made ready and newly setup so it can be launched in several non-English international markets early next year.

Wow. That’s the best three letter word I can come up with. While I’m obviously incredibly busy, I think I’m learning so much more than I could have ever imagined. It’s been a great ride so far and I hope 2007 will be topping this.

I’m wishing you all a very happy holiday season and all the very best for 2007!

May all your wishes come true,

Ulf