Neat new service.

GOOG-411 offers free directory assistance – Lifehacker

Not available in Montreal, but quite useful. Apparently better than Free-411.

The speech recognition and speech synthesis are quite good. In fact, when I was working in speech, such a service was pretty much the main example we used for the need for speech research. With the prominence of cellphones in many different parts of the world, I still think that speech is a field in which technological advancements can have very interesting effects.