AT&T has bought Ingenio and will use its call tracking platform across Yellowpages.com, 800-YellowPages, Mobile and Print Yellow Pages. We think the deal is quite important. This is a story that will unfold in the months ahead as more information…
Toronto-based voice search technology provider Call Genie announced today that it will acquire European DA technology provider BTSLogic for $1.5 million. The press release is somewhat unclear on details of how this will play out, but it states generally that…
The numbers are looking very, very good for the Interactive Local Media:07 conference in L.A. Nov. 28-30. Internally, we think this one is a record breaker. Register and book the hotel while you can. The latter tends to sell out.…
Are newspapers a good candidate to drive the free directory assistance market? Say Hello leader Jim Geddes hopes so. His theory, which I have previously reported on, is that newspapers are ideally positioned to rule free DA. They have the…
Are newspapers a good candidate to drive the free directory assistance market? Say Hello leader Jim Geddes hopes so. His theory, which I have previously reported on, is that newspapers are ideally positioned to rule free DA. They have the…
GOOG-411 billboard sightings are getting to be as common as iPhone sightings (see recent TKG Client Inquiry Brief, Google Starts Advertising 800-GOOG-411). The most recent was found by Danny Sullivan on Lombard Street in San Francisco. But beyond being just…
While I am in Reston, VA, attending Kelsey's Directory Driven Commerce conference, I thought it would be a good time to start talking about our next show, which I am co-producing: Interactive Local Media 2007. The show is being done…
As part of the mobile forecast we released last week, we thought it would be interesting to show a little detail about the ad-sponsored directory assistance portion of the forecast. As we wrote previously, we have been watching the market…
R.H. Donnelly announced today that it will launch a new free directory assistance product, powered by Call Genie, in four markets (Denver, Spokane, Phoenix and Tucson). 1-800-CallDex will include free local category search and provide addresses, phone numbers, business descriptions,…
Jingle Networks, the provider of 1-800-FREE411, has expanded its relationship with Nuance for speech recognition technology. Under terms of the deal, Nuance will also be referring its voice-enabled customers to the Jingle ad platform. Presumably, if Nuance does audio work…
YouTube has launched a new video ad format it has been testing for months (see past post). These ad units, known as inline ads, involve translucent windows that are overlaid on video content for about 10 seconds near the beginning…
White Directory Publishers, a division of Hearst Holdings, announced a marketing partnership with Jingle’s 1-800-FREE411 making it the first independent publisher to resell sponsorship products on the 1-800-FREE411 media channel. The deal with White Directory comes on the heels of…
Free directory assistance services, funded by pay-per-call ads, have been rolled out by a number of entrepreneurial companies, telcos and Yellow Pages publishers. But now comes The Florida Times-Union, which quietly rolled out a local version of Say Hello Inc.…
Yesterday, Idearc Media and Jingle Networks announced a partnership that counters AT&T's foray into the free DA business with its 1-800-YellowPages product. According to yesterday's announcement, Idearc's performance-based advertisers will receive additional exposure to buyers via Jingle's 1-800-FREE411 service. It…
Starting this fall, Idearc Media’s Superpages may be accessed via instant messaging as a result of a new relationship with Multiplied Media, the Calgary-based provider of Poynt, a local search service that operates over IM. Multiplied Media was formerly known…
The NewTeeVee blog has some interesting thoughts following comments made by Google's Marissa Mayer at the Searchonomics conference going on today. Google's free directory assistance product, Goog-411 (past commentary here), will assist in helping Google develop speech to text ability,…
Following in the footsteps of Jingle Nets’ 1-800-Free411 (and failed services, like inFreeDA), Verizon LiveSource has launched a trial of a free DA service in Boston and Denver. The ad-supported service boasts the catchy number: 800-THE-INFO. It uses Call Genie's…
Consumers increasingly use the Web to search for services. But it is tough to complete the loop and actually order service. In many cases, businesses are either unresponsive to phone calls and e-mails, or their information is inaccurate. All this…
Summary Jingle Networks' free DA service 1-800-FREE411 has discontinued live operators in some locations. Operator expenses in these markets have significantly cut into margins as the overall cost of providing these calls isn't being offset by the advertising volumes. Free…
Summary After completing a free DA call this week using Google's newly launched 800-GOOG411, we were asked if a text message was desired in addition to the free voice and "connect me" features (the multimodal functionality that is standard in…
