Mark Atwood

Dvorak is a professional troll, by his own admission. He's the journalistic equivalent of Fred Phelps.

If Slashdot ever stopped linking to his stuff he'd probably have to start working for a living.

every single restaurant I've called in the past year have had a machine answer the phone, and that machine was not capable of receiving, let alone answering, complicated questions like 'what part of town is that in?' or 'what are the nearest cross streets?'.

Dvorak needs to retire.

I already do Google searches from my mobile all the time. Unless i need reservations, i'd rather know where it is than talk to them.

May I suggest, that even your "normal" sample is self-selected to a higher socio-economic class than average.
May I also suggest that looking up information about a restaurant on the restaurant's site (for example hours or menu options) only works if they have a web presence. Google would suffice if you already had their address and simply needed directions, but nav systems do that well already. I suppose there is some gain in not needing more than one widget, but...

That said, I am, of course, currently in rural Virginia. I find restaurants by looking in the yellow pages and paying attention as I drive through town. The web is NOT the most effective tool to find food in this town.
And it's only marginally better in Baltimore and DC.

EXACTLY. I like to use the phone just because often the website is wrong, or doesn't have exactly what I want (ie, are they open on a Sunday? are they still taking orders right now?), but I'll use the web to find the phone number!

I wonder how many other people are like me in having become more comfortable NOT trying to get information out of a person if I can get it out of another source. Not only do I not call stores or restaurants or banks unless I absolutely have to, I rarely call my friends or associates until I've sms'd them first to see if now is a good time. I don't like uncomfortable telephone conversations. (I LOVE good telephone conversations. That's different.)

Getting on the phone to get information or make a reservation means waiting on hold, possibly getting rude or snarky service, possibly not hearing or being heard if, say, I'm out on the street at a bus stop where I've gotten off a bus and suddenly realize that I'm completely lost...

If I can get information myself, quickly, from a website on my phone, that's fantastic. I can read faster than I can navigate a telephone menu. I can understand a map faster than I can figure out where I am and where my goal is via spoken or written directions (in most cases). And if I happen to be in a country where they speak a language that isn't the most comfortable for me, I didn't have to stumble through in pidgin and then hope I know what was said to me.