nkishore.com

 Google Voice Local Search lets you search for local businesses from any phone and for free. If you’re in the US, call 1-800-GOOG-411 and say what you want to find.  With Google Voice Local Search, you get fully-automated, fast access to same local-business information you would find on Google.com. But you can access it from any phone, anywhere, at anytime.

The current competitors in the segment are:

• 1-800-Free411 (Jingle Networks)
• TellMe
• 1-800-YellowPages
• Google (800-Goog411)
• There are also others which operates in local market, such as 1-800-SanDiego

Here are some of the features of Google Voice:

* You can find a business listing by category. Just say “pizza,” for example.
* You can send the listing details to your mobile phone via SMS.
* The service is fully automated, so it doesn’t rely on human operators.
* It connects you directly to the business, free of charge.

Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing our user’s requests and at finding the businesses they are looking for. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.

In the US, 411 is the phone number for local directory assistance, but it’s pretty expensive (more than $1). 1-800-FREE-411 is a free service that uses speech recognition to process your request and ads to monetize it. The US people make about $2.6 billion 411 calls each year, and it is approx $7 billion/year market. Looks like Google is eyeing an major market share in this market …