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?

411, Free DA | 2 Comments »

As with ATG (all things Google) the industry watches every blink, nod and burp of the morphing colossus…far be it for me to not exhibit pile-one behavior…

Recently, the search engine mavens have noted the first sign of Google advertising its services - a marked shift from its traditional viral growth without any brand or services advertising. Of all things, it chose to advertise its Free 411 voice service. The media of choice? billboards. What’s up with that?

(more…)

411, Free DA, voice search | 1 Comment »

This post by Henry Blodgett presents evidence and good analysis behind the macro shift in market share from traditional media to online. Summarizing, Blodgett notes:

U.S. advertising revenue at all 19 companies increased 8% year over year in Q2, to $13.8 billion ($55 billion annualized). The online portion of this pie grew from $3 billion to $4.2 billion (23% share to 30% share). The offline portion, meanwhile, shrank from $9.9 billion to $9.6 billion (77% share to 70% share). The online companies, in other words, picked up 7 percentage points of market share in a single year.

The breakdown by media type, was also noteworthy:

…the only traditional media business that grew U.S. advertising year-over-year in Q2 was Outdoor (up 13%). Meanwhile:

. Television (cable/broadcast) shrank 1% ($50M)
. Print (magazines/newspapers) shrank 5% ($170M)
. Radio (terrestrial) shrank 7% ($105M)

A different vein of gold for local media might be sitting inside these stats… (more…)

411, Free DA, mobile search, strategy | No Comments »

Google’s just announced acquisition of Grand Central paints another point on a line with an increasingly clear path. Google is building the infrastructure for a suite of communication services that erase the lines between modalities and communications delivery channels.

For the unfamiliar, Grand Central is an innovative voip-based technology company (an NBC video roll for a simple overview, and their Demo 2006 video gives a more detailed product concept orientation).The GrandCentral notion of a “life-long, multi-modal mailbox” will presumably be integrated with GoogleTalk and Gmail. This will become a compelling hook to your personal communications life.

What might this imply to the progression of voice services? advertising services? (more…)

web 2.0, IM, 411, Free DA, voice search | 1 Comment »

Patents seem to be increasingly newsworthy items of late, huh? You have probably already read about Jingle Networks‘ announcement of a patent award - the lead abstract description is copied below:

The current invention is a system for providing telephone directory assistance service in which a telephone user calls to the system and the system will, based on the requested number or type of service, hear a recorded advertisement. The advertisements are selected from a databank according to selection criteria, which may include any number of advertisements. After the advertising announcement is completed, the directory assistance call is processed as usual. The selection criteria can include the use of SIC codes.

The industry reaction I’ve witnessed seems to be fairly consistent - with a patent filing date of May 31, 2002 how can something this general purpose not have “prior art”? (more…)

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I ran across this fascinating commentary from Tim O’Reilly, hidden inside an unrelated Wired interview. It deserves to be called out. It it Tim’s (always insightful) perspective, this time on Google’s intent behind the voice work.

“Why did Google, for example, recently decide to offer free 411 service? I haven’t talked to people at Google, but it’s pretty clear to me why. It’s because of speech recognition. It has nothing to do with 411 service, it has to do with getting a database of voices, so they don’t have to license speech technology from Nuance or someone else. They want their own data stream.”

That is a pretty intriguing viewpoint on motive. I do agree that the probable intent of Google is not to “be in the 411 business” - rather it is to begin the process of domination in voice navigation. This importance of this feels pretty darn far-reaching. The Google Voice Box, here we come.

UPDATED LINKS:

1. Tim posts on his own blog with more context. Worth reading for sure.

2. A Google patent watcher, with interesting insight into Google voice search patents (as picked up by Battelle)

411, Free DA, voice search | No Comments »

Well, we’d all expect it to be variation on HAL, no doubt…

A pretty predictable move to those of us who live in the space, but it’s obviously noteworthy that the ‘plex has pushed their IVR experimentation out as a new beta service. As profiled in SearchEngineLand, Google joins the ranks of entrants as the industry increasingly recognizes that the vast majority of mobile inquiries for local information come via the entrenched information services channel of Directory Assistance.

While the business is most certainly ripe for innovation and commencing a process of re-invention via Free DA and mobile search, there are major challenges in the user experience and content navigation elements of these services. Nothing overly impressive from the get-go from the new service, from my cursory use. However, it’s foolhardy to under-estimate what the merry band in the Googleplex can do from a technology viewpoint.

Much to write ahead on this topic; I’m working on a “series of posts” to instigate the conversation around the connections between voice & internet in the increasingly mainstream mobile economy.

411, Free DA, voice search, mobile search | 5 Comments »