Eh, It’s Aboot Time: Canada Gets GOOG-411

June 20, 2008 in Industry News

Today, Google announced that they have expanded their Free 411 informational service from the United States to Canada. Now Canadians, whether from “Traw-na” or “Cal-gry” have quick and free access to phone numbers of local businesses and residents by calling 1-800-GOOG-411.

This isn’t just about expanding the boundaries… the same Canadianisms like “eh”, “aboot”, “Traw-na” and “Cal-gry” used above are actually taken into account by Google:

“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.”

Instead of asking you for City and State, Canadians calling GOOG 411 will be prompted with City and Province. So smart you are, Mr. Google! But what if a Canadian is in America and calls GOOG-411… take that!

Anyone who doesn’t know about GOOG-411 or hasn’t tried it definitely should. It’s 100% free and can be really helpful. Go ahead and throw your Yellow Pages in the garbage ladies and gents.

Here’s a video about GOOG 411