In my last post, I was absolutely thrilled with Google’s 1-800-GOOG-411 information service. After some less successful uses of the service, I am a little less thrilled.
Apparently, there are certain words that the system cannot understand, among them the word, "thought" and the name "Keri." When the system fails to understand the request, you are instructed to say, "Go back." It has happened three or four times now that the system simply cannot understand the individual words I am saying (e.g. city, may, hong), no matter how carefully I enunciate. After saying, "Go back" for the ninth or tenth time, I have found myself saying, "**** it," (which it also does not understand) and calling the normal human-driven local 411 service.
I imagine that Google’s system will improve over time, and I will continue to use it in combination with the local service.
Kelly Hobkirk - teaching marketers how to harness strategy, goals, reality, and purpose to connect and do better work.
Kelly Hobkirk has been helping companies succeed in creative ways for nearly 25 years. His work has been featured in Time Magazine, and books by Rockport and Rotovision. Get exclusive articles when you sign up for his monthly newsletter.