I used Google SMS several times this weekend as I was out and about:

-To check movie times ("movie 10010")
-To check the weather ("weather 02138")
-To look up the address of my friend's art gallery in Chelsea ("Andrea Rosen gallery new york")

Each time, I got accurate, relevant results back within seconds of pressing Send. Thanks Google!

Local information - news, weather, traffic - is going on-demand as a method of delivery. Traditionally, this info has been broadcast by local TV & Radio stations (and newspapers in the case of news & weather). In NYC, AM 1010 WINS is a news-only station and I believe the largest station in the market. You can tune in and you're guaranteed to hear traffic, news & weather every 10 minutes (interspersed with their ads of course).

Wireless IP technology poses a threat to local TV & Radio. Web brands like Google, Yahoo & MSN can use it to deliver this information to users at the push of a button. For that matter, these aggregators could be dis-aggregated with news providers working directly with the wireless carriers (Text "Weather" to short code ACCU for your local Accu-Weather forecast").

Local TV & Radio should also use these new technologies to offer this information to their users in an on-demand fashion, and as an extension of their brand. Radio could use one of their sub-channels enabled by HD technology to effectively provide on-demand local info.

The point is that, 5 years from now, when I'm driving in my new car with my wireless handset in its dock, I should be able to get the latest sports scores, stock quotes, my horoscope, the weather forecast and traffic info for my planned route, with the push of a few buttons rather than wait for this info as I do today. Better yet, traffic info should automatically be fed to my on-board navigation system, which would use it to optimize and/or recalculate the planned route. I'd be willing to pay for something like this.