Free Flight Status Alerts through Google SMS

I am not even going to pretend to know what this means, but for those in the audience who are tech savvy and tied to a handheld device I imagine that your heart is going to go all aflutter when you read this:

Press Release

Recent weather conditions have left airline passengers stranded for hours, and according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, almost one in four flights arrived late in 2006.

Now, Google SMS offers users real-time flight status and airline information, using data from flightstats.com. No more rushing to the airport, only to find a flight delayed. No more driving in circles, waiting for a friend to arrive.

Users simply text the airline name and flight number to shortcode 466453 (‘GOOGLE’ on most phones), and the status information will be sent to their mobile device. They can also text a specific airline name, and Google will send back the main number for that airline.

This is available for flights departing or arriving in the United States, and it is free from Google, though standard carrier rates for sending and receiving text messages still apply. Users can try it online at http://www.google.com/sms/.

Google SMS is a service that enables users to search for information with Google from a mobile device, and returns the search results as text messages. With Google SMS, users can get local listings, movie showtimes, weather, facts, dictionary definitions, product prices, and more, all on their mobile devices.