Google SMS
Google is making starting to show off its latest messaging trick. Earlier this year, there was the release of GMail with much fanfare. Today, they're going straight to your pocket - for your cell phone. News.com has more:
Called Google SMS, the service is the newly public company's broadest push yet in the mobile market and comes as Google and its rivals in the hotly competitive Web search industry race to expand their reach.
Google SMS delivers business and residential listings, product prices and dictionary look-up. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is not taking a percentage of the 5-cent to 10-cent per-message charge levied by mobile carriers, nor will advertisers influence results.
This seems somewhat interesting, but definitely not "cool". Some time ago I had heard about a couple of services that let you take pictures of ISBNs on books and have price data passed back to you. Then there's semacode, which lets you decode a 2D barcode using your (Nokia) cellphone and be re-directed to a URL. Similar concept, but "cool".
Though only somewhat related, the Brits are about to prove how SMS-dependent they are. The Good Pub Guide is doing some interesting triangulation to help people find a cold, frosty one. Engadget has on this.