REVIEW: ‘Send to phone’ a helpful standard among Internet mappers

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ 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.
Applications: “Send to phone” service on Yahoo, Google and Microsoft maps
Running on: A standard, text-messaging-capable cellphone
Yay: Connections between mobile phones and commonly used Internet services, such as mapping and directions, are becoming increasingly commonplace. And, more importantly, such connections are exceedingly useful.
Nay: Some Internet destinations fare better than others in what exactly they send to phones.
We say: The “send to phone” button likely will become a standard feature on most major Web sites, to the joy of those who use such services.
For those of us who do not possess an internal, innate sense of direction, Internet-mapping services — such as Google Maps and Microsoft Corp.’s Live Search Maps — are a necessity. And cellphones that can aid in the “getting unlost” process are even more valuable.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that Google, Yahoo and others providing maps and directions on the Internet are working to incorporate cellphones into their offerings. And the combination makes sense: You discover where you’re planning to go using a desktop computer, and then help yourself get there using a cellphone.
With this in mind, I set out to test the “send to phone” features from Yahoo Local Maps, Google Maps and Microsoft’s Live Search Maps. The three Internet-based mapping services each offer a function that can send details of your destination to your phone via a text message. And though the three services appeared to operate in much the same way — users can send a text message containing the address and phone number of a destination to any cellphone, including their own — the devil was in the details.
First off, I couldn’t get Yahoo’s “send to phone” feature to work. Although the button was indeed listed on the Internet giant’s mapping site, it was not a functioning link. I tried to update my Yahoo account with my cellphone number, thinking that the link might work if Yahoo had my number on file. But the link remained dead despite my attempts to revive it.
Google Maps did provide a working link. The service’s “send to phone” feature did as advertised, sending the address and phone number of my desired location in a text message to my phone. Bingo.
But Microsoft’s mapping service stood head and shoulders above the rest. Live Search Maps not only sent the location’s phone number and address to my phone, the message also included a WAP link to a mobile Web page with a variety of other helpful items. The page included directions to the location (from north, south, east and west, as well as from a specific location) along with photos and a tiny map. Impressive.
Of course, the “send to phone” feature on most Internet-mapping services is just a minor cog in the overall location-services market. Indeed, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo each offer separate, downloadable applications for cellphones that provide a variety of searching and mapping functions. And similar offerings are available from wireless carriers, handset makers and third parties. Nonetheless, few U.S. mobile-phone users see their phone as anything other than a voice-calling implement, and Internet players would be wise to leverage their online positions into the wireless world.