How many people are familiar with Microsoft’s Voice Search tool “Live Search 411?” It’s a powerful yet not well-known way to do local search from any phone (1-800-CALL-411 or 1-800-225-5411). Conceptually, it’s exactly like Goog-411 but has more considerably more content and capabilities. Built on the Tellme infrastructure it can provide:

• Local business search
• Driving directions
• Weather
• Sports scores
• Stock quotes
• Gas prices
• Movie information
• Travel and airlines information

Today traffic information, from INRIX, was added to that list.

Live Search 411 will presumably be rebranded in June and become part of a more holistic Microsoft search offering that will include the PC, voice portal (Live Search 411), WAP search and mobile client.

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

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