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Google – On Your Cell Phone Did you know that Google is not just
for computers? Often we need answers when we are not in front of a computer. If
you have a cell phone handy this is not a problem. Google’s search works
quite well with your cell phone if the phone can send and receive text
messages. Almost every cell phone today can do this, so this should not be a
problem. Sometimes text messaging is called SMS, which is shorthand for Short
Messaging Service. Today the primary users of text
messages are the under 25-age group, with teenagers probably being the heaviest
users. They seem to be constantly “texting” their friends. But you do not
have to be a teenager to use text messages. It is surprisingly easy. You will
need to know how to create a message and where to send it. Below I show you
how to use text messages to get answers from Google. The general process is to compose a
text query for Google and then send it to the Google service. They respond by
sending a text message with the search result. It is nifty and you may end up
saving some money. First, you need to access the message
feature of your cell phone. I do this on my Verizon Wireless LG model by
selecting the menu button and then Messages.
I next select New Message. This
takes me to the Text Message
sub-menu. Here I can select the Address
to send my text message to or the Object,
which is the phone company terminology for the message. It is here in the
‘Object’ that I compose the text message query. Your cell phone menu system
may be different. Google’s address is quite simple. All
you need is to type googl, which
is 46645 on the cell phone. Compose a query, send it, and shortly
thereafter Google will respond with an SMS answer. If you want to find pizza parlors in
town, your message to googl (46645) would be “pizza If you need to find someone’s phone number,
try sending a message with the person’s name, city, and state. This is a lot
cheaper than directory assistance from a mobile phone company, which often can
cost $1.25 plus tax. Do you need directions? Send Google a
message with the start and end locations. For example, if you wanted
directions from the Norwalk DMV to the Crown Royale 6 movie theatre in If you want
to know when the movie is playing, type the movie’s name and the theater’s zip
code or city and state. For example, you might type “Ice Age 06851”. You
would find that it is playing at 5:10, 5:50 and 7:50 pm. You can use
this SMS service to get stock quotes, sports scores, weather forecasts, to
check product prices to see if the store you are in is competitive, to do zip
code look-ups and find other information. If you want
a handy, wallet-sized printout reminder to carry with you to jog your memory,
navigate to www.google.com/sms/tips.pdf
and print out the Adobe Acrobat PDF file. If you need more information on
this Google service then navigate to www.google.com/sms. After you master this, you will be
able to show a teenager something about text messaging that they probably do
not know. Won’t that be impressive? |
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