Google has quietly discontinued its SMS Google Search service. Previously, customers with old-school feature phones could text a query to 466453 (GOOGLE) and receive a text version of top Google searches.
Obviously, the service wasn't as useful as a regular Google search, since the results were extremely limited: text only, since links wouldn't work, and the character limit was restrictive.
Still, it was always handy if you didn't have a smartphone and absolutely needed to know the population of Mozambique to settle a bar bet, and it was less embarrassing than calling a friend near a computer to look something up for you.
Like most Google services, it was free, aside from any charges incurred for sending an receiving text massages through your carrier, but the growing penetration of smartphones means fewer people needed the service, so Google has dropped it.
Amid an outcry from late adopters, Google eventually offered an explanation in the form of a forum post.
"Hi everyone,
Closing products always involves tough choices, but we do think very hard about each decision and its implications for our users. Streamlining our services enables us to focus on creating beautiful technology that will improve people's lives.
Thanks,
Jess"
That's little consolation to the dozen or so Google SMS loyalists still out there, but progress requires sacrifice, so it seems.
It's unclear exactly how many resources were required for Google to keep up its SMS service, but once the infrastructure was in place, it likely didn't cost much. It's quite possible some entrepreneurial fan could set up their own texting service that would simply convert Google searches sent to it into SMS responses, thus duplicating the service.
That would be a labor of love, and one that would be greatly appreciated for about a month. Perhaps there's a new opportunity for Bing here?