Last Thursday, Google introduced its GOOG-411 service in Canada, the first non-U.S. country to have the free phone directory service.  If you’re like me and detest being charged high fees for services that could be free, (such as ATM transactions and in this case, directory assistance) than GOOG-411 may be just the service for you.

Enabled by Google’s tremendous index of online data, mobile and landline users can now call 1-800-GOOG-411 and by following the queued prompts, receive the phone number, address and even a map of a desired business anywhere in the United States and Canada.

One of the first questions that came to mind when reading about this service when it was launched in 2007 was “What’s in it for Google?“ Despite the fact that the retrieval of such data is a natural extension using Google’s readily-available data and capabilities, it was not immediately clear why Google would provide such a service for free when local phone providers charge anywhere from $0.75 to $1.50 for similar, if not lesser services.

Therein lies the beauty of the service for Google – Google engineers, who were seeking to develop a top-notch search tool for speech content within audio and video clips needed to amass an incredible library of phonemes (small units of sound, spoken in a particular voice, with a particular intonation) to be able to enhance their speech-to-text model.  The GOOG-411 service provided just the tool to obtain such meta-data.

(This is similar to Google’s Beta Image Labeler, which creates a “game” whereby users are paired with a partner and receive points for the depth of matching descriptions given to selected on-screen images, thereby helping to increase the accuracy of Google’s image search.)

While the service is still in its very early stages in Canada, (the record for recognition of requests is still spotty, at best) I am currently in Boston at our nGenera Enterprise 2.0 conference and so naturally, I decided to give the service a try as soon as I arrived.  The results on the U.S. system are much more precise, due to the refinement that has come with the program’s increased U.S. lifespan.

What do you think about GOOG-411?  Is it creative innovation?  Another great use of Web 2.0 tools to harness mass collaboration?  Does the idea of having your voice recorded and attached as meta-data to your phone number bother you?