Via Bonnie Shucha at WisBlawg I discovery another cool new offering from Google: Google Voice Local Search. Dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone (especially your cell phone). You can then search for any business in the city that you identify. You can search by either the business name or the business category.

As described by Google:

As part of our ongoing effort to make the world’s information universally accessible, we’re testing a free service called Google Voice Local Search. Using this service, you get fast access to the same local information you’d find on Google Maps. But you don’t need a computer, you don’t need an Internet connection, and you don’t even need to use your cell-phone keypad. It’s voice-activated, and you can access it from any phone (mobile or landline), in any location, at any time.

As with Google’s other products, this one is free. Given that this is still in its experimental stage, I am sure that there are some kinks to be worked out. However, this looks like another great, simple and useful idea from Google.