Following the post on the verticalization of mobile search, I was able to talk to mobile search startup GoUAskMe. Unlike the SMS based local search tools cited in that post, the company is trying to ride the growing wave of…
The recently acquired Tellme today announced that it will integrate a new local business search into its multi-modal voice search platform. From the press release: The free service launches today with local business search by business name or category. Designed…
Google has officially launched its free 411 product. The number, 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411), makes business name and category search accessible from any U.S. telephone. This is a product we originally uncovered in our report Wireless Voice Search: The Multi-Modal Revolution. At…
Last week, my colleague Peter Krasilovsky wrote a blog about 1-800-Free411 launching category search and took the opportunity to update how Jingle is doing. According to SVP Lyn Oakes, Jingle is receiving 16 million calls per month, with 60 percent…
The path to self-sustaining revenues for free directory assistance isn't clear yet. But if there is any real money to be made, it is going to come from category search. Unlike name search, users don't have a clear idea who…
Microsoft announced today that it has agreed to acquire Tellme, a Mountain View, California-based voice search provider. Yesterday, Microsoft and Tellme briefed The Kelsey Group about the pending acquisition. Neither side would disclose the size of the deal, but we…
New management has taken over at 1-800-SAN-DIEGO, and they're determined to increase awareness in San Diego, boost sales channels, add a text messaging component and expand to other markets, possibly including Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. 1-800-SAN-DIEGO…
Tellme Networks hasn't exactly lived up to its 1999 vision of becoming the "Yahoo! of voice portals." Using the portal has been a clunky experience, and ad revenues have never really developed. But Tellme has stuck it out by providing…
U.K. publisher Yell's online directory operation, Yell.com, has expanded the capability of its mobile directory platform with a new service being offered both in application- and browser-based modes through a deal with the Danish mobile search firm mobilePeople. Here is…
We've written a fair amount recently on the topic of White Pages, specifically whether print White Pages has much of a future in a world that is increasingly mobile and digital. An article in today's Albuquerque Tribune adds to the…
Year-end reviews are always kind of arbitrary. For sure, a lot of overlap occurs from year to year. So much of what we consider "the '60s," for instance, really happened in the early '70s. But clearly, r/evolution is happening in…
Canada's Yellow Pages Group is going full steam ahead with Hello Yellow, its ad-sponsored directory assistance service available at 310-YELO (9356). But the service probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere without teaming up with local 411 services, according to VP of…
YellowPages.com, the joint venture between AT&T Yellow Pages and BellSouth Intelliventures, appears poised to shake up the world of directory assistance by picking up inFreeDA, the provider of 1-800-411-METRO. InFreeDA Founder and CEO Michael Loftus, who spoke at Kelsey's ILM…
