Google Maps ‘Send to Phone’ Oddities
January 8th, 2007 by Michael Gray in GoogleIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
So when I search Google Maps for [1 penn plaza ny ny] I get this result
However when I search for [penn station bookstore], which is at the same address, I get the ’send to phone option’ shown below. I’d really like to have the ’send to phone’ for both.
Tags: google, google maps, google local, local search
Sphere It
January 9th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I think Google has it right. When searching for a bookstore you are telling Google you want a certain business. When searching for an address, you could want that for a multitude of things not having to do with that business.
What if there are multiple locations at the same address?
I don’t consider it an oddity, I consider this proper usage of the send to phone feature.
January 9th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
1 Penn Plaza has eleventy billion businesses inside on 57 floors. Perhaps Google can improve itself to feature all businesses listed at that address in the little balloon on its maps and create functionality that allows you to call that number, but unless you’re seeking the particular business for the time being, what Jeremy says makes perfect sense.
January 9th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I usually know the name of the business or comapany I am going to see and can rememeber that much. However addresses I’m bad with so I just want that on my phone. The address in question was for example purposes.
January 11th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I hear you… what Google could use is a way of improving itself and showing all businesses located at a particular address.
January 12th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Google has a long way to go for mobile apps. While I love Google Local for Mobiles or whatever the app is now called — helps immensely down here in the West Village, where the streets are funky — I really would love to just be able to see what businesses are on a block I could point to… or restaurants, or something. Say I put in my girlfriend’s address… how about a list of restaurants nearby? Just because there’s a map involved, there’s no reason not to drop to a text list, with a “show me where this is” link from that list to go back and forth between interfaces.
I don’t want to have to know what I want to find it.
September 28th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
I dissagree with most of the comments and completely agree with the author. The main feature of “send-to-phone” is NOT the business name, it is in fact the address. Google should definitely add this feature to both address search and business search. The reason being lets say you have entered a friends address with no association with a business, but all you have is the address. I nice way to make a note of this address would be to have it in your cell phone. This is currenly not possible.
Anyways if this is the only feature that google doesn’t impliment that i want then it doesn’t matter, Google rocks! I love all there stuff