What a great tip from Michael Morse today! It's really aggravating to have to pay to call Information to get a phone number when you're traveling and don't have access to the Internet to look up the number.
Michael says:
If you don’t already know, there are several free numbers you can call to get that residential or business number.
1-800-BING-411. This is Microsoft’s number. In addition to phone numbers, you can also get step by step driving directions and weather information too. [Guess we can throw away the GPS! I just hate it when the automated voice gets crabby the second or third time she says: "Missed your turn. Re . . . CAL . . . culating."]
AT&T 1-800-YELLOWPAGES: This is a free service for business and residential listings. You will have to listen to about 10 seconds of advertising before you get your number. [I won't use this one. It's not just the 10 seconds of ads . . . but it's the YELLOWPAGES. Sure it's easy to remember. But it's like 1-800-CHARTER and others. The numbers aren't easy to remember.]
1-800-GOOG-411: This is Google’s number for business and residential numbers. Michael says he uses this via text and it works great.
Jonathan Warshay comments:
If you have a smart phone that uses Windows or the Palm system, then check out tryDA. It uses the internet, so you need a data plan, to look up names of individuals or businesses, and dial from the results. It integrates with Google Maps (download that application for your smartphone) and you can add contacts to your address book easily. I have used it for a few years. It is free of charge.
http://www.tryda.com/Public/default.aspx
Scott Bassett, www.scottbassett.com, Michigan appellate lawyer extraordinaire and also a technology expert specializing in hardware and software for attorneys, offers the following addendum:
"Yes, and a new version of tryda (1.085) was just released. See the announcement here."
http://tinyurl.com/ox2xan
Check out other good info on Michael Morse's Blog - Technology and Management for Law Firms.
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