Googling from your Cell Phone
The latest twist on the Googling phenomenon is the Google SMS Beta. Most new cell phones have the ability to send and receive short message service (SMS) text messages. You can now send short questions to Google through SMS messages, and it will send answers back a few minutes later.
In its current form, Google SMS can look up business listings, residential listings, product prices, word definitions, brief snippets from web pages, and calculations and conversions. For instance, if you enter half a cup in teaspoons into a text message and send it to 46645 (GOOGL), shortly afterwards you should receive a message that says: Calculator by Google: half (1 US cup) = 24 US teaspoons
So, if this technology is here today, imagine what we’ll have five years from now. Just how do we adjust our thinking about what kids need to learn when they will have anytime anywhere access to any data they might need? We’ll fight it for awhile, of couse, banning cell phones from use in class and putting up jammers during the SATs, but sooner or later we need to catch on that are we hiding from reality.