The cellphone, computer and Internet are converging technologies, which, soon enough, will be only one. Thus, many services are being created that start on a phone. Among these, the ones I find particularly useful are:
1) ChaCha
ChaCha is much more helpful to mobile phone users than typical computer-driven search engines. ChaCha is conversational, fun, and easy to use. Simply ask your question like you are talking to a smart friend and ChaCha’s advanced technology instantly routes it to the most knowledgeable person on that topic in our Guide community. Your answer is then returned to your phone as a text message within a few minutes.
Try it, it is unbelievable!!
2) Google 411: Phone GOOG-411 and there you get directory assistance, free.
3) Last but definitely not least, is JOTT. Register, then you’ll see. I can call JOTT and utter a statement: for instance “Remind me to buy wine at 7pm today”. It will then interpret it, convert it to text, and email me a note, and set my calendar! Instead of using humans, JOTT is fully automated. A tiny secretary in my cellphone! Basic service is free, but premium access is cheap. JOTT is being used in conjunction with Twitter:
1) I JOTT down a Tweet
2) JOTT sends the note to my Twitter-flow
3) I save time by not typing a message on my cell’s tiny keyboard.
This reminds me that the convergence between cellphone-computers and the Web will be centered around oral or visual interfaces, much more than textual ones. Unfortunately, JOTT is available only in English, but I’m sure soon…