I was hanging out with some friends in Oregon last night, and we ended up needing some pizza. A friend called Google 411 (1-800-GOOG-411) to get the number of a nearby Dominoes, and something happened that we didn’t expect. Listen to the resulting call.

Here’s an excerpt:

GOOGLE: What city and state please?
Me: Gresham, Oregon.
GOOGLE: Gresham, Oregon. What business name or category?
Me: Dominoes.
GOOGLE: Ya know what, it looks like you’ve uncovered a small error in the system. We’ll fix that as soon as possible. We really appreciate your call. Talk to ya soon!

I was surprised. First, there was an error on what I would think was a popular request; second, Google’s error message! If Google’s 411 software was written by a “stereotypical” development company, I would have gotten “Error 51.” Props to them.

On the other hand though, it seems weird that the Google voice talks to me like another person. “Ya know what?”, “Talk to ya soon.” I know I’m calling a computer… it just feels odd.

Being the tester that I am, I tried to see how I could reproduce the bug. It seems as though using the input “Gresham, Oregon” and “Dominoes” reproduces it fairly easy. However, I’ve seen a non-scientific correlation between the bug and any related background noise. It seems as though the bug happens more often when there is a noisemaker, such as a TV, running in the background while making the call. I’m not totally sure this is the case, but going into a quiet room gave me the results I was looking for.

Good bug, Google.