TellMe Announces Voice Driven Search on Mobile
Posted by Oliver
Over the past few days I’ve had the chance to test out TellMe’s new voice activated mobile application as well as meet with David Mitby, TellMe’s Product Manager for this new and powerful application.
In a nutshell TellMe, the company that’s behind the “City and State Please” vocalizations that you hear when you call 411 or the brilliant bag tracking IVR system used by American Airlines, has launched voice activated search for mobile phones.
While the bar is a little high on the device side requiring at minimum a full MIDP2 device capable of handling a full-blown java application, the power and utility of the application may just make it worth upgrading your device if you don’t have one that can handle this program.
Once activated, simply speaking your city and state and then your desired listing will reveal that voice recognition has come a long, long way. Even in a noisy environment I found that I was able to get reasonably consistent results across a broad spectrum of request for listings.
By itself, this would be a neat feature but not the makings of a killer application but identifying a business listing is just the beginning. Once you’ve made your selection the application brings up a screen that displays some additional links. Among these are a link for dialing the number of your desired contact a map to their location and a link for directions.
The call option requires no explanation. The map option gives you an overview map of the address that can be zoomed in or out to give you a broader or more detailed view. The map can also be scrolled in all four directions to allow you to view the surrounding area.
The directions option gives you the choice to get directions from an address you supply or from an address generated from one of your prior searches.
While it wasn’t in the beta I tested, a new release of the app is said to also have the option to SMS the results of your searches to your friends (just in case you have someone meeting you or you simply feel like sharing).
TechCrunch has gone into some detail with screen shots so I’ll let you jump there for a look and instead will devote a few words to what I feel is particularly interesting about this development.
Directory assistance is one of the most profitable of all the services that the carriers provide. Currently the cost for a single request is from $1.79 to $1.99 which strikes me as sufficiently outrageous that I avoid using the service at nearly any cost. Until now, SMS Google, and Google Local Search or YahooGO! have been my replacements but none of these are nearly as quick or convenient (especially while driving) as TellMe’s new service.
The surprising this is that the carriers (many of whom get their Voice XML services from TellMe) would agree to the deployment of this application. I suppose that they’re realizing that there are more and more people like me that simply find the current fees unreasonably high and that by moving now until this new TellMe model they’re hoping to capture at least a fraction of the lost revenue with the hopes that this will be the beginning of the use of an expanded suite of beta services by customers that appreciate the simplicity and convenience of TellMe.
In any case given the chance to download TellMe’s new application I’d highly recommend that you do so. Not only is it easy to use and truly functional but it will absolutely keep some of your hard earned dollars in your pocket rather than the coffers of the carriers.
