REVIEW: Live Search makes 411 easy

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Application: Microsoft Corp.’s Live Search 411
Running on: Apple Inc. iPhone running on AT&T Mobility
Yay: Easy to use, accurate results, added features are big plus
Nay: Voice recognition wasn’t always spot on, but nothing too detrimental
We say: Kudos to Microsoft for further freeing customers from the outrageous fees carriers charge for simple 411 info
There’s little worse than the exorbitant fees wireless carriers charge their customers for basic info like phone numbers. What is the going rate now, $1.79? Remember the good old days when 75 cents seemed like a rip-off? That’s the thing with getting ripped off-once you think you’ve taken all you can handle, the powers that be push your limits even further.
There is a silver lining though. Discouragement can feed change. It doesn’t always, but this time it has. Companies that operate mostly outside the entrenched norms of the wireless industry have heeded the call for simple access to information on the go. There’s something beautiful about bill payers outsmarting bill collectors through no feat of their own.
Enter Microsoft Corp. who earlier this month launched Live Search 411, which allows consumers to dial a toll-free number from any wireless or wireline phone to get phone number listings for a specific business or category of businesses within a concentrated area.
To get started I simply called (800) CALL-411 or (800) 225-5411 and got the all-too-familiar automated voice asking me to tell the automated female voice what city and state I wanted a listing for. After getting through the prompts, I asked for my first listing. The automated system quickly returned with a few options, each assigned a unique number for identification. Upon hearing the correct listing (No. 3 on my first try), I retrieved the business’s phone number.
The real fun comes later though. Microsoft’s Live Search 411 goes on to ask if you’d like to be automatically connected to the business-sans the added fee-or receive a text message with the listing’s contact information that includes a direct link to a map to pull up online.
The service was accurate in the three tests I completed recently. At most, the business I was looking for fell down to the No. 2 or No. 3 spot in the search results, but it never came back empty handed. Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, Crain Communications and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf all came up correct for their respective listings on Wilshire Boulevard.
The service can also use Global Positioning System data on GPS-enabled phones to provide location-aware results. Windows Mobile and BlackBerry users are able to download a free application that will offer even more features including nearby gas prices and hours of operation for businesses.
Live Search 411 was jointly developed with Tellme Networks Inc., which Microsoft acquired earlier this year.