Nearby Intersections on GOOG-411

It is amazing how much information can be displayed on even the smallest map, yet we sometimes forget that geographic content is not always available visually.

If you're out and about, you can call GOOG-411 and get local information about businesses. Now we've made it even easier to orient yourself without a map in front of you: call GOOG-411, ask for 'details', and in addition to the address and phone number of the business, we'll also point you to the nearest street intersection or adjacent streets.

You can try it now: call 1-800-466-4411, look up 'Google in New York', ask us for more 'details', and we'll tell you that our Chelsea office is 'near the intersection with West 16th Street'. Unless you're a seasoned New Yorker, this might very well save you from walking up or down a few blocks.

The nearby intersections are available for most businesses in the US and Canada. They are derived automatically by an algorithm written on 20% time by Googlers in New York and London. Tell us other ways you would want to use this new feature -- we hope to expand it to other products soon!

Posted by Vincent Vanhoucke, Research Scientist and Arnaud Sahuguet, Geo Product Manager

Talk to us: GOOG-411 now available in Canada

Posted by Arnaud Sahuguet and Jonathan Matus, GOOG-411 team

Our mission, to organize the world's information and make it accessible, certainly doesn't stop at the US borders. With that in mind, we've recently expanded our GOOG-411 service to Canada. If you're in Canada, you can now find business listings by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-4664-411) from any phone -- for free.

You can use GOOG-411 to find and connect with businesses you've never called before, such as when you're in an unfamiliar city or when an immediate need arises -- like a plumbing emergency. You can also use GOOG-411 as a "fast dialer" for calls to your dentist, car mechanic, bank, or any other business that you call more than once but isn't in your phone's contact list. For example, instead of memorizing or making a note of the number of your favorite Chinese restaurant, you can call GOOG-411 and connect directly to place your weekly take-out order.

At Google, we work hard to tailor products to specific markets and regions. We believe that accounting for the unique characteristics of each country can make the difference between an OK service and a great one. Although English is spoken in both the US and Canada, there are enough differences between the way it's spoken in the two countries that we engineered GOOG-411 especially for Canadian English. We incorporated some Canadianisms such as "eh," "Traw-na," "Cal-gry," and, of course, "aboot." We also took into account geographical differences. Whereas users in the US are prompted for "city and state," Canadians are asked for your "city and province."

The service is still experimental but offers all the same features available in the US, such as free call, free connection, SMS info, iPhone "Map-It" integration, and more. For now, the service supports only English queries, but we're working hard to make it disponible en Français dans un proche avenir.

Please give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Impressions of CES

Posted by Lawrence Chang, Product Marketing Manager, Google mobile team

As the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show winds to a close, some of you may have wondered if any of us attended. Some of us did make it to Las Vegas, primarily in support of and to meet some of our partners who demo'd some pretty neat things that highlight and leverage Google applications.

I was excited to have a chance to go, so I took a video camera to capture some of the sights, sounds, and people that I met. You can play the video clips below in sequence, or select individual videos to view one at a time.

• "Don't waste time while you're there!": If you've never been to CES and want to get a sense of what it's like, or, if you were there and want to compare notes, take a look at this.
• Picasa Web Albums on BlackBerry: Mike Pegg of Google mobile chats with Trudy Koen from Research in Motion about a new Picasa Web Albums application that will soon be available for BlackBerry devices.
• GOOG-411 'Map it' Feature and Thomson's new GE DECT 6.0 Phone: Jonathan Matus of Google Mobile tells us about the 'Map-It' feature integrating GOOG-411 and Google Maps on the iPhone. He then talks to Jordan Riggs of Thomson about Thomson's new GE DECT 6.0 phone, featuring a dedicated GOOG-411 button.
• Google applications on the new Sony Mylo: Philip Boyle, a product manager at Sony, describes how to get to Google Search, Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube on the new Mylo.
• Good-bye to CES 2008: Some parting thoughts of mine as I leave the show.

Finally, we've created our own Google Mobile Blog YouTube channel where you'll be able to find all of the current and future videos we make.