Gary Price at ResourceShelf alerted us to the fact that enhanced directory assistance provider 118 218 in France is now offering a much broader service using content and results from search engine Exalead. In principle, this is comparable to enhanced directory assistance/mobile voice search services being offered in the US by Tellme, 1-800-YellowPages, Jingle Networks and Google (Goog411) but it’s a much broader service.

Users in France pay for 118 128 (owned by US-based InfoNXX) like traditional directory assistance in the US. By contrast, the services above (Tellme, et al) are all ad-supported — or will be. In addition to mobile voice search, 118 128 also offers a companion, Internet local search and shopping site.

Related Topics: Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Engines: Outside USA

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling