Hey buddies, I am back after being off the buddy NEWS for a little while and I am here with some goodies.

Google Labs, known for coming out with innovative ideas and helpful services has done it yet again. And this service is something that would prove to be very interesting too. Though these days most of the Indians carry high end phones with GPRS/Edge and stay connected to the world through internet, that does not help one being alert and always informed about everything. This is where Google Labs’ new service, Google SMS Channels scores it.

What is SMS Channels?

A free service available, only for Indian Mobile subscribers right now, enables one to subscribe to Google channels and get updates on various services like blogger, reader or any RSS feed. There are quite a few channels available at present giving updates about NEWS, weather, sports, tech trends, fashion, etc. And the number of Channels are growing everyday. Check out the latest list of popular SMS Channels.

What is a channel, exactly?

A channel is just like a magazine which you can subscribe to and get the content on your mobile. The content can be subscribed by the channel owner or also by all the subscribers based on the channel settings. A channel generally fetches information from Google services like groups, reader, mails and also from any type of RSS feed.

As a subscriber you can subscribe to channels and that’s not all, you can create your own channels and invite others.

eWebBuddy now has its own channel which will keep you updated of all the posts that come of ewebbuddy blog. Subscribe to the service today and make sure you do not miss a post again!

Update: Check out the latest list of popular SMS Channels.

How to subscribe to channels?

You can search for channels in the channel directory of Google. Also there are several editor picked channels which google recommends based on their content.

To subscribe you will have to set a nickname online and then register your mobile number. On registering, you will recieve a verification code which is required to be entered along with accepting google’s term and conditions.

You can also register for the same through SMS. Following are the instructions from Google:

On SMS you can just send REGISTER to 9870807070 to sign up for the service. You will receive a reply ‘You’ve accepted the Terms of Service at http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/termsofuse. To subscribe, reply  ON channel name. eg. ON  GoogleNews. For more commands reply HELP’

There are several other commands which will help you to subscribe/unsubscribe to google channels. For the full list of commands available, sms HELP to 9870807070.

For more details and queries on the service, click here!

Update: Check out the latest list of popular SMS Channels.

eWebBuddy’s SMS Channel

As I mentioned earlier, now eWebBuddy has its own SMS Channel. Subscribe to it today and get regular updates. And what more, you can unsubcribe any moment, so what there to loose?

You can also subscribe to the RSS feed directly for your feed readers and follow me on Twitter.