Google is making it easier for shoppers to stay up-to-date with the best prices and deals on a wide range of products with its new Short Message Service (SMS) texting alert service that arrives just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.
The free service allows shoppers to create custom searches for products they are seeking, which are then sent to their mobile devices via SMS texts. Users can set up the texts via various products and categories and can halt the messages or edit the searches at any time. The service was recently announced by the company in a post on Google+.
The SMS search option from Google shows up in a Google search on a mobile device as a promotional message when they are searching for a variety of products. Type in PlayStation 4, smartphones or Moto X Play in a Google search on a mobile device and the Subscribe: Black Friday deals promotional message will appear and let a user sign up for alerts.
The presented offers will showcase relevant deals from a variety of retailers. Consumers can choose to receive text alerts in a variety of product categories, including computers, smartphones, televisions and gaming consoles. Some product categories won’t bring up the SMS promotional service, such as DVD players or Blu-ray players. The lack of coverage for a wider array of product categories makes the service less useful than it could be at this point.
A user’s phone number remains private when employing the service, according to Google.
For Black Friday deal alerts, consumers can text JOIN to 847-904-0608 to sign up. For Cyber Monday deal alerts, consumers can text JOIN to 847-906-8958. For other holiday shopping deals, buyers can text JOIN to 847-904-0596.
Since most mobile plans today include free, unlimited texting, the Google service won’t cost users anything and could be helpful to find the best deals this holiday shopping season.
Google has been providing a wide range of alerts services for years around the world, including weather and storm-related alerts, tsunami alerts, earthquake alerts and more.
The company also provides holiday Santa Claus tracking services as Christmas Eve approaches.