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Those four ‘411′ calls were expensive. To say the least, I never used Cingular’s ‘411′ service again. Following that incident I found myself searching for a cheaper option. I found one, it was 1-800-FREE-411. I used that service with dedication, several times a month if not more. I absolutely hated having to listen to the advertisements that appeared several times during my call. However it did fulfill my needs. For the most part.

Well today, Google has released its’ beautiful Google Voice Local Search service via Google Labs. Now instead of calling FREE-411 and having to listen to advertisements telling me I’ve been selected for a free trip to Cancun (sure.. right), I can instead call 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) and simply find out exactly what I need to, without advertisements and ABSOLUTE FREE!

Not only can GOOG-411 give you business listings based on ‘Business Name‘, but ‘Business Category‘ as well. You are provided with up to the first eight results it finds using the same databases Google Maps uses for business listings. When you select your listing you are connected free of charge to the business, or if you want details, it provides you with the address and phone number. In the future, you may very well be provided with a slew of other customizable details. Keep in mind, this is still a “beta” project of Google’s. Another great perk of this service is not only can you request information from a particular city/state such as “Mountain View, California” but a zip code (like 94043 - just say nine-four-oh-four-three). The last great feature of this service is also that it can send to your mobile phone an SMS of the business information you want. Thank you Google!

Go ahead and give this great new service a spin:

• Dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (that is, 1-800-466-4411)
• When it asks for the city or state, say Mountain View, California (you can also say nine-four-oh-four-three)
• When it asks for the business listing, say Google
• Once you are connected to Google for free, tell the person who answers the phone to pass on Thanks to those responsible for the Google Voice Local Search service they have toiled many long hours working on. Google’s 411 Team deserves the gratitude and thanks.

Goodbye Cingular 411… So long Free 411… Hello Goog411!

For more information, check out Google 411 Labs Page and swing by the Google 411 Discussion Group.

For those of you who are curious as to what this mess is that is Registerfly, the short and long of the story is that there was a power struggle between the owners of the company which in turn killed customer support, the website’s functionality, the underlying processes involved in maintaining the registrar, and ultimately it put people’s livelihoods at risk.

“R Collins” posted a comment on a BusinessWeek article on Registerfly which sums up well the bad karma surrounding the whole problem:

“This has been a travesty. The transfer system was designed to work between two trusted registrars and completely breaks down when one has gone bad. RegisterFly has held customers hostage by not providing the “auth codes,” by arbitrarily locking domain names, by changing the “Whois” info, and by arbitrarily putting your domain into “ProtectFly”, their service to protect your identity but also keeps you from transferring your name. We have lost domains and, more importantly, production Web sites have just gone dead, heading to a RegisterFly parking page instead. Try explaining this to customers depending on these sites for their business. RegisterFly’s debacle has ruined businesses and lives. And this could have all been avoided with a better process in place and more in-depth criteria for accreditation. This process must be improved before the Internet can truly be used for mission-critical applications.”

Ever since the problems started arising at Registerfly, other registrars around the internet started posting promotions for Registerfly customers. I mean, who wouldn’t? Registerfly held over 2 million domains, and if those people wanted to escape, they had to defect somewhere.

My somewhere turned out to be GoDaddy. I knew GoDaddy offered great services, I have heard people praise them before, and they also offered solutions for Registerfly Users. For me, a grand total of $110 got all of my domains in the process of transferring from Registerfly to GoDaddy. However, this wasn’t going to prove to be an easy task. I encountered many obstacles, from not being able to take my domains out of “ProtectFly” mode (which disallows transferring domains out of Registerfly) to Auth Codes not showing. Luckily I found a blog explaining the details of disabling ProtectFly which in turned led me to my Auth Codes.

Getting everything fixed and righted though was quite an endeavor which took me over a week. The entire time I was worried that Registerfly would do something stupid and would prevent me from continuing on with the transfer to GoDaddy. Especially since I was unable to update my contact info for the whois verification. Ultimately though, I am brought here to this blog post to announce to the world I am no longer held by the Registerfly Pirates! Just minutes ago I had the last of my domains transferred to GoDaddy, and in my eyes, all is well.

For some though, things being well will never come to be. I have read horror stories about people losing upwards of 800 domains (which equate to tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue - if not more) to Registerfly with no hope of recovery. Some stories also mention people losing thousands of dollars worth of funds they deposited into their Registerfly accounts because they were unable to access their accounts or withdraw their funds. I was lucky, some others were lucky… Unfortunately though, not everyone had been able to Escape the Fly’s Web.

Lets See What Happens…