Get RealTime SMS Alerts From Google?

Google are going to do more and more of this kind of linking to the mobile phone, because they know that customers will use it. No doubt they will move to other alert types. For the enterprise, it will actually turn into a challenge. Think about it. If every one starts to get their SMS alert from Google, then you lose your opportunity to hook the customer back into a customer service conversation in order to manage their expectations. SMS alerts via Twitter API will also enable this kind of alerting. It would seem the time has come to really think about closing the interaction loop so that what I get alerted about, is actionable. Flying high with Google SMS from Official Google Blog by Molly Graham Posted by Deepak Sethi, Software Engineer, Mobile Team Ever spent 15 minutes on the phone shouting answers at the automated airline attendant while rushing to the airport? How cool would it be to get real-time flight info just by sending a quick text message? Well, now you can, using Google SMS. Simply text your flight number to 466453 (‘GOOGLE’ on most mobile devices), and the status information will be sent back to you. Or text a specific airline name, and Google will send back the main phone number to call. Google SMS is available for flights departing or arriving in the U.S., and all of the information is provided by flightstats.com. And as always, it’s free. Give it a try, and let us know what you think.

technorati tags: customer, interaction, voice, messaging, customer, contact

Anyone Seen This On Google?

I saw that one of my contacts was "out" on Google IM. I went to leave a message so that they could pick it up whenever they logged on. In red, over the bottom pane where you write, Google message said "X is busy, you may be interrupting". The use of language is interesting here, and perhaps indicate that Google are listening to the problems of the Always On culture. This evening on TodayFM there was a long piece on various forms of nervous disorder based around the idea of compulsively checking your email, and the norms of messaging in terms of how long you can leave it before you have to reply to an email. I think this might be the year that terms such as "attention", "interruption", and "intention" hit the mainstream.

technorati tags: customer, interaction, voice, messaging, customer, contact