Search the Web with your Voice

Yahoo! has become the first big search portal to allow users to search the web with their mobile phone using only their voice. The service is called Yahoo! oneSearch. It is currently available for BlackBerry Curves, Pearls and 8800 series phones. No mention of the iPhone yet, but they do plan on supporting other vendors soon.

Similar product do exist on the market today but each has its limitations. There is a product from Microsoft called "Live Search for Mobile", but that service can only handle queries for local information only (e.g. directions, phone look ups). ChaCha, an Indiana company, lets people search the Internet from any phone by calling 1-800-2-ChaCha (1-800-224-2242). ChaCha sends a text message in response. Unlike vlingo, ChaCha has Indian's sitting by the phone listening to and answering the queries.

Dave Grannon, chief executive of vlingo, said the service can handle any spoken query. It is also built to adapt to a person’s voice and to improve over time, he said.

According to thisVlingo press release Yahoo! is using an exclusive license agreement from Vlingo Corp, a two-year-old Cambridge, Massachusetts-based start-up, to run oneSearch. Yahoo! has also invested $20 million in Vlingo. Existing investors include Charles River Ventures and Sigma Partners.

I don't know about you but I still have issues using my built-in phone voice activation features. It usually take at least two tries before it figures out what I want it to do. I haven't tried this service yet, but I like the adaptive nature of vlingo's technology. If it works it has a lot of potential in the mobile search space.

Nick

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