Answer Me!

Lifehacker - Task.fm Turns Natural Language Commands into Future Reminders - Reminders

Sounds nice, but natural language querying would be nice, too.  "What do I have next Friday between 10 and 2?", for example.

There's certainly a lot of work on understanding calendar expressions these days.

Lifehacker - Task.fm Turns Natural Language Commands into Future Reminders - Reminders.

Task.fm is a simple web application that turns your natural language commands into email and SMS reminders.

Task.fm takes commands like "meet with Jim tomorrow" or "Replace fish tank filter in 21 days," and converts those commands into future reminders. The reminders will be emailed or sent to you via SMS. The email reminders are free but the SMS reminders require credits with the service—100 messages cost $8. The fee structure isn't outrageous, but we're in agreement that nothing sounds as good as free.

Answers by SMS

I wonder what the average length of an SMS is (in characters) compared with an average search query?  I suspect the SMS is longer, which again raises the question: why are queries so short when users are willing to input much longer strings for SMS.  Also: how many use SMS vs search queries (unique users per day, say?)   Anybody know?

Link: Free Services to Inspire Your Cellphone - New York Times.

FREE ANSWERS Google’s 46645 text-messaging service can fetch much more than phone numbers. It can also send you the weather report (in the body, type, for example, “weather sacramento”), stock quotes (“amzn”), where a movie is showing nearby (type “flushed away 44120”), what a word means (“define schadenfreude”), driving directions (“miami fl to 60609”), unit conversions (“liters in 5 gallons”), currency conversions (“25 usd in euros”), and so on.

Every cell carrier charges for text messages — about 10 cents each, unless you have a plan that includes them. But Google itself doesn’t charge for any of this. It’s not only ad-free, it’s free free.

If you prefer conducting your research missions by voice, call 800-555-TELL (800-555-8355). A cheerful recorded voice invites you to say “Travel,” “Traffic,” “News Center,” “Stock Quotes,” and so on. The system is smart enough to know your location, which pays off when you say “Movies,” “Restaurants,” “Driving directions” or “Taxi.” (This service, run by Tellme Networks as a showcase for its corporate voice-recognition technology, also lets you say “Time” when you’re setting your watch — a blast from phone companies past.)