I’m a little surprised that I’ve never blogged about Google SMS before, because it’s a wonderfully useful service that deserves more attention. It’s amazing how few people know about it! What is Google SMS? Basically, it’s Google via text messaging. The power of Google in your pocket!
Using Google SMS is really simple. All you have to do is send a text message to 466453 (GOOGLE). There are a bunch of built-in commands you can use, but the default is just a local search. For instance, when Sharon and I were in Calgary last weekend, we used Google SMS to give us the address of Tubby Dog. I sent the following message:
Tubby Dog, Calgary
And Google SMS replied immediately with:
Local Listings: Tubby Dog 1022 17 Avenue SW Calgary, T2T 0A5
I’m not exaggerating when I say immediately either – Google SMS is incredibly fast.
The built-in commands or “search features” include: weather, glossary, dictionary, stocks, directions, flights, translations, calculator, currency conversion, sports, and more. There’s a full list with examples and an interactive demo here. The ones I use most are local search (as above), movies (such as “get smart t6p”), and the calculator (such as “0.45 lb in kg”). The weather search (“weather edmonton”) is also handy.
I’m fairly dependent on Google for looking stuff up, so Google SMS is great because I don’t need to be at a computer. Do yourself a favor and program 466453 into your phone now!
MasterMaq's Blog 
I use Google SMS for movie listings and the dictionary all the time 😀 Good post, Mack.
Done. Just tried it out for the local search, and you’re right – it is fast. I’ll definitely be using this in the future. Thanks for the heads up.
I was unaware of this service. Sounds quite handy, I’ll have to add this number to my address book. Thanks for sharing.
Amazing!! See, you do learn something new everyday.