Your Voice is Worth 800 Million

Om has an interesting take on why TellMe may be worth 800 million - voice input additions to Local Mobile Search. Surely that’s not the only use for this technology as Om points out, but…

The real reason will be Microsoft Mobile and non-PC devices where Tellme’s voice interface and back-end server technologies can come in quite handy.

“The leading edge battleground between us and Google in local search really will come on the phone,” Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told the WSJ back in May 2006.

That is the money quote.

I use TellMe regularly and the deCarta maps and routes are useful, but I rarely use them and instead often choose the call option to get connected to nearby retailers. 

This entry was contributed by Jonathan Spinney