Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Click-to-call emergency information

(Cross-posted from the Google.org blog)

In November 2010, we began displaying relevant emergency phone numbers at the top of the results page for searches around poison control, suicide and other common emergencies in 14 countries. Today, we are making it even easier for you to quickly reach the help you may need by adding click-to-call capabilities for all of these emergency information search results.

We piggybacked on the way that our mobile ads team enabled click-to-call phone numbers in local ads on mobile devices. This capability enables businesses to make it even easier for customers to reach them when those customers search on Internet-enabled mobile devices. The functionality seemed ideal for the emergency information feature.

Previously, mobile users in one of these countries who conducted searches around poison control, suicide and common emergency numbers received a result showing the relevant emergency phone number.

People on mobile will now get the same result, but the phone number will be a link that allows you to dial the number instantly, just by clicking the link.


Now, the poison control result in Spain is click-to-call on a mobile phone

We hope this addition is a small step that helps connect people with crucial information that they need immediately.

Posted by Vikram Sahai, Software Engineer
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15 comments:

  1. David J. FianderMarch 9, 2011 at 2:46 PM

    Of course, the fact that the emergency numbers to call are based on the locale I have my phone set to, rather than my geographic location means that I get UK phone numbers, which are less than ideal for me, what with the fact that I live in Canada.

    I suspect that people who select the UK english language option in other parts of the commonwealth, like say, India, Pakistan, or Gibraltar, will also find these suggestions less than helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 9, 2011 at 4:16 PM

    I live in Australia and got no useful result. For us, the emergency number (police, fire, ambulance) is 000, but the web results I got were all US-related ("the911site.com" was the first result).

    Moving along, nothing to see here.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 9, 2011 at 4:17 PM

    Android phones, locate you based on GPS location or if that is turned off, on your location to the closest cellular tower. So what country your phone is set to should not matter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. naughtyzutMarch 9, 2011 at 4:27 PM

    It worked all right for me. My GPS is on; while the first result for the search "police department" was the LAPD, the second result was for the city I'm in right now (about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles--not too bad, all things considered).

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownMarch 9, 2011 at 4:30 PM

    In Sydney, worked for me on a search for 'Suicide', with a click to call to a 13 number. Great idea and well implemented!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AdminMarch 9, 2011 at 8:52 PM

    thank you örgü işleri

    ReplyDelete
  7. ripMarch 10, 2011 at 3:27 AM

    No luck in Portugal! No click to call just normal search results

    ReplyDelete
  8. OneLifeLiveItMarch 10, 2011 at 8:20 AM

    With all the recent changes going on with Google Mobile I am getting very close to moving away from foursquare due to scale and size of what you are doing here.

    Are you only staying with Android at the moment or can Blackberry smartphones be used also?

    ReplyDelete
  9. mobiscreenMarch 13, 2011 at 6:21 AM

    nice to have such service

    ReplyDelete
  10. AdminMarch 14, 2011 at 5:45 AM

    online film izle thank you

    ReplyDelete
  11. YM1March 14, 2011 at 7:30 PM

    Hello Google Team! Please check the bug reported on this Thread (affecting Google Latitude for Symbian Devices). This has been going on since March 11th.
    Thank you!

    http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=51875891737475b7&hl=en

    ReplyDelete
  12. remoheavenMarch 15, 2011 at 3:12 PM

    sikis izle .

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dr GoogieMarch 19, 2011 at 1:10 AM

    very good idea but will be ok in Ghana?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dr GoogieMarch 19, 2011 at 1:13 AM

    i really want to know how people in Ghana can also enjoy this service
    thank you

    ReplyDelete
  15. AdminMarch 19, 2011 at 1:57 PM

    thank you diziler

    ReplyDelete

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