My friend Brooke at work turned me on to Google SMS.

This is a neat, potentially incredibly useful features that you might not realize is available at your fingertips, free and instantly.

You send a text message to GOOGLE (phone number 466453 spells Google) and it texts you back with an answer immediately.

I tried texting "Lindsay Lohan Age", and Google SMS back with her date of birth (July 2, 1986) and a source (wikipedia).

Next, I tried "Typewriter Invented Year", but Google SMS couldn't answer that one. Later research found that the typewriter was "invented" through a number of innovations over about 8 years. (1870-1878)

For the next one, waiting at the airport in Tucson, I tried "Time in Austin". I wanted information about what the time change would be from California to Austin. This time I got two text messages worth of information, but not the answer I wanted.

Once we got to Austin, I tried it again, because I had neglected to print out the address of our hotel. I sent Google the text "Homestead Hotel Austin". Google got it right again with the information I was looking for: Homestead Village, 507 S 1st St. Austin, 78704 512-476-1818. There are apparently two Homestead hotels in Austin, and it sent both addresses, but I remembered which one was ours from the address.

Next, I tried "Pearl Brewery Location", to find out if the Pearl Brewery was still in San Antonio. This did not return any results, probably in part because the brewery had been closed down, not moved.

On Monday, it was hot and humid in Austin and I wanted to know just how hot it was. I text-messaged Google "Weather Austin" and got back a five-line status report including the temperature (86F), Humidity (61%) and wind info (S-7 mph).

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