#21 Google Labs

I actually am familiar with the idea of the Google Labs. When I attended the ALA conference in New Orleans in June of 2006, I went to a Google presentation. The speaker mentioned things galled "Googlets" (not sure how to spell) which were basically the brain-children of Google employees.

When you work at Google, you are designated a certain amount of time per week to work on your own ideas. I thought this was an amazing concept, to allow an employee to spend work time being creative and free to work on anything they like. Google applications such as Google News and Google Book Search started out as "Googlets" (or so the speaker said).

So, the first thing I tried was the very first on the Google Labs page, the Google Voice Local Search (Dial 1-800-GOOG-411). How cool! And free! I called and said my city and state, then said "Mario's Pizza" (which I wasn't sure even existed) and got 2 "hits." Then I chose the one I wanted and it started to connect me (I hung up quickly because I didn't want to actually call Mario's and feel like a dork for bothering them). I didn't wait long enough to see if they actually read you the number, too, but I am guessing they do. Really cool.

Next I tried the Transit Trip Planner. OMG, again, so cool! I put in the library's address and my home address, since I have searched the Trip Planner on the metrokc.gov site for this trip before and it gave me ridiculous results (take, like, three different buses and 2 hours to get here, plus routes that only run until 8am and stop at 8pm). Guess what??? There is a bus that picks up at the door of the library and stops within 3 blocks of my house! This will be fantastic for helping patrons find bus routes. I actually emailed the Metro Trip Planner site to let them know that it is unacceptable on their part to have such a poor tool.

Lastly, I looked at Google Trends, since it was suggested. I wasn't really into it, but can see why it could be interesting depending on the search terms you choose.