What happened to Google SMS?
5 February, 2011 § 1 Comment
I’ve been using Google SMS now for a couple years. It allows users of “feature-phones” basic access to some of the luxuries that smart-phone users get.
Google SMS Search is accessible by sending a text message to 466453. It’s free and quick.
For instance, sending a message ncaab michigan state would reply with:
Basketball: NCAA Michigan State Spartans (13-9) Last game: Feb 2, Iowa Hawkeyes 72 - Michigan State Spartans 52 Next game: @ Wisconsin Badgers, Feb 6 1:00pm ET www.ncaa.com Tip: get phonebook entries: send HELP PHONEBOOK to learn more.
This works great, providing up-to-date sports scores, local listings, and more. Lately I’ve been getting odd results when doing sports searches:
Here’s what I saw today when sending the same message ncaab michigan state:
Did you mean 'NCAAF michigan state'? Basketball: NCAA Michigan State Spartans (13-9) Last game: Feb 2, Iowa Hawkeyes 72 - Michigan State Spartans 52 Next game: @ Wisconsin Badgers, Feb 6 1:00pm ET www.ncaa.com Tip: get phonebook entries: send HELP PHONEBOOK to learn more.
No, I didn’t want football scores. In fact, college football is out of season. According to the command HELP SPORTS:
For EU Football and NBA/NHL/NFL/MLB scores and schedules, type SCORE and team name (ex: 'SCORE Arsenal', 'SCORE red sox'). For NCAA sports, enter NCAAB (basketball) or NCAAF (football) and team name (ex: 'NCAAB Duke', 'NCAAF USC'). No results for sports not in season.
So yes, I didn’t get results for a sport not in season. But the response that I got is pretty awkward. In the traditional Google search, when you get a “Did you mean…”, it will usually auto-correct your search for you and return those results. In this case, it didn’t auto-correct my search.
So what happens if I do send a message with NCAAF michigan state?
Local listings: State of Michigan: Branch Offices 400 Albert Avenue East Lansing 1 (888) 767-6424 Tip: check flight status; send HELP FLIGHT to learn more.
Weird huh? All of this used to work as it prescribed. I wonder what has happened?
JAWS 
Hey Hey Jared! I now have Google SMS in my phone’s address-book and will utilize it more. Previously you’ve showed it to me; but now I am going to use it significantly more. I probably will just use it for weather, movies, and occasional directions. I don’t know why your results are screwy. I was playing around and the translate wasn’t working for me; but then again I am new to it so maybe I am doing it wrong. Eitherway, looks really cool and I intend on using it quite a lot more!