Investor’s Business Daily does an update story on the progress of free 411 services. Not a lot of new news, but it appears the story may have been triggered by an otherwise unannounced $13M C-1 incremental tranche of financing for Jingle Networks, as noted today in Venture Beat.
An interesting comment from the story, for those watching the development of Free DA models, and the positioning of Google and Microsoft services in this space.
Google’s service, focused on business listings, is an extension of Google’s Web search, says Mike Cohen, manager of Google’s speech technology group. “It’s really playing into the very core of mission of Google, which is to organize all of the world’s information and make it easily accessible,” he said. Cell phone users can use the Google service in combination with its online maps to help find businesses.”… “Ads won’t be part of the 411 service for now”, Cohen says. “We don’t currently have any plans to monetize it”.
It also appears from the article that Microsoft has likewise confirmed no intention to monetize their service. for now.
This sets an interesting backdrop to the progression of “free look-ups” across the landscape of local media and search services. Are listing/name based look-ups going to continue to be free to both consumers AND advertisers, as they are in G-Y-M internet and voice search services?
