How to Use Google Maps to Make Free Phone Calls

Google Maps and similar technologies have revolutionized cartography in the last decade. It's hard to imagine that there was a time when people didn't have instant access to nearly perfect directions to just about anywhere in the world. Now we have access to high-resolution satellite images, and even a view from the street in some locations on Google Maps. It has some amazing functionality in the mapping and travel world, but you can also use it to get free phone calls to businesses.

There are some places in the world that won't let you make outside calls without paying a fee, including some businesses, hotel rooms, and pay-phones. If you're making a long distance call, you'll have to either use your cell-phone or have a long distance plan. In most cases it's not a problem to make a long distance or an outgoing call, but in the occasion that it does, Google Maps has a very nice feature that will connect you to a business, even long distance, without making an outgoing call.

Here's how you do it. Browse on over to maps.google.com, type in the name of the business that you want to call, and the city that it's in (ie, "McDonalds, Sioux Falls, SD"). Google Maps will locate the business for you and display a popup with some information about the business, such as its address and its phone number. You'll also see a button that says "call." If you click on the call button, it'll ask you for your phone number, and then it'll call you and connect you to the business that you wish to reach, and it will do so all for free.

You'll get a free connection to every business that Google Maps knows about it. There's literally no charge to you at all, and it's treating as a normal incoming call. This is incredibly useful if you want to avoid long distance charges or outgoing call charges on your phone.

This technique seems to work for almost all businesses. Google Maps does a pretty good job about having every business one could think of in its database, you might rarely find one that it doesn't know about. In my experience using this trick, I've found two businesses out of about 50 that I've used it on that weren't listed on the service. I've found it particularly useful to check business hours, make reservations, and the like. It comes in very handy in hotel rooms, and at payphones if there's one around.

You won't be able to use this service to call cell-phones and residential calls, but it works like a charm to call businesses for free. Happy calling.