Finally a great use for Text Messaging!

Other than 16 year olds sending “Whr U At?” and “OMG Billy is so HAWT!”, I haven’t seen much of a use for text messaging with cell phones. Recently I have received and sent some text messages with friends, but it seemed easier to pick up the phone and call. Well once again, Google has added value to another service, free of charge. You can query google, and get results almost instantly. Here’s how it’s done:

1. Create a new text message to 466453 (That’s G-O-O-G-L-E numerically)
2. It works for 46645 (G-O-O-G-L) also.
3. Type in the info you are searching for, and either the city or the zip code.
4. Send the message

In less than 30 seconds you get a reply back from Google with the top search results for your query. For example, I sent “Pizza 77477″ to Google, and here was their reply:

Chuck E. Cheese’s:
Houston
11920 Southwest Fwy
Stafford, TX
281-575-9891

Pizza Hut
11611 W Airport Blvd #C
Stafford, TX 77477
281-240-5800

Barry’s Pizza & Italian Diner
11303 Fountain Lake Dr
Stafford, TX 77477
281-494-0666

Pretty cool huh? And you can search for people as well. A search for “Bill White 77002″ returned:

Residential Phonebook:
Bill White
723 Main St.
Houston, TX 77002
713-222-0939

Searching the web, I found a couple of other cool new uses for text messaging. For example:

1. You can donate to the United way. You can donate $1, $2 or $5 via text message. Text the word “give” to the number 191919. You get a quick text message back that asks you to input the dollar amount. Send that back and you’re done; your next phone bill will show the charge. Now I hear that the carrier receives about half of the donated amount, which sucks, but it is still a cool idea.
2. You can get the status on items you are bidding on from ebay by entering your cellular number on your customer page and selecting the appropriate flag. That way you’ll never lose out on that vintage Star Wars action figure you need to finish your collection.
3. One company used a text message to fire someone. Ouch!
4. During Hurricane Rita, KRBE sent over 80,000 text messages to people who had signed up for their emergency service.

Very cool indeed.