May 10, 2012 at 9:34am ET by Barry Schwartz

Microsoft is closing down their toll-free voice search program named Bing 411. I have confirmed the Bing 411 service is closing by calling the service and hearing immediately the message: Bing 411: On June 1st, we are discontinuing the Bing 411 service. There were reports of this via LiveSide where they said they "received a tip" on this news. But this is indeed happening and Bing is closing down their 411 service. Google shut down their GOOG-411 service back in 2010. Bing kept theirs live hoping to fill that void, but clearly with the rise of smartphones and voice search embedde [...]

Marchex Acquires 800-Free-411 Owner Jingle Networks

Apr 11, 2011 at 8:31am ET by Greg Sterling

Marchex announced this morning that it was buying Jingle Networks, operator of free directory assistance service 800-Free-411, for $62 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2004, Jingle Networks also has a pay-per-call mobile ad network. Jingle's 800-Free-411 competed with GOOG-411, which was closed down last year, and Microsoft's Bing-411, which is still operating. However Jingle was the leader in the "free directory assistance" segment. At one point I called free-DA "local-mobile search for the rest of us." That was before the dramatic growth of smartphones, which have continued to ero [...]

Windows Phones Finally Arrive With Dedicated Search Button

Oct 11, 2010 at 10:59am ET by Greg Sterling

Get in, get out. That's the idea behind the new Windows Phones: get access to content quickly and "get back to your life." Personalization and simplicity are also key themes of the new Microsoft mobile experience, which officially launched this morning with speeches from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega. Without mentioning Apple or Android, de la Vega lauded Windows Phones as offering a "breakthrough experience" . . . "unlike anything you've ever seen." As the iPhone heads to other US carriers (i.e., Verizon) AT&T is shifting its focus to embrac [...]

GOOG-411 Winds Down, Bing-411 Parties On

Oct 9, 2010 at 1:26pm ET by Greg Sterling

Yesterday Google announced that it was shutting down 800-GOOG-411, the free directory assistance (or voice search) service it launched in April, 2007. Back in those days the mobile landscape looked very different than it does today. It was challenging to conduct searches on most mobile phones and the iPhone was in its infancy. The first Android handset, the G1, was still almost 18 months away. The conventional wisdom was that "free DA" would become a booming segment in mobile, with lots of usage and potential ad revenues. Many of the large telco-incumbents that provide traditional, paid 411 [...]

Report: ChaCha Voice Search Beats Google, Yahoo/Vlingo In Accuracy, Reliability

Jul 21, 2009 at 2:08pm ET by Greg Sterling

A new report finds that mobile search and answers service ChaCha beat Google and Yahoo's voice search tools in terms of overall accuracy and reliability across a range of query types in a controlled study. The study was conducted by Albright Communications/MSearchGroove in January of this year. The report, which can be downloaded from the ChaCha site, was sponsored by ChaCha but the authors said, "While ChaCha sponsored the study, it was fully removed from the planning, testing, analysis, and reporting of this work." The methodology was very specific and relatively elaborate. I summarize it [...]

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