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Google’s Got The 411

Google Voice Local Search is an automated free service that offers information on local businesses. Users can search business listings by name or by category. The information provided on Google Voice Local Search is the same found on Google Maps.

Once a user has found a listing they can have the information sent to their mobile phone through SMS or they can be directly connected to the business free of charge, though your phone carrier may charge for the phone call or for receiving an SMS.

To access the service, users can dial 1-800-GOOG-411. Google cautions that the service is still in its experimental phase and may not be available at all times or work for all users. The service is offered only in English and in the U.S.

Surprisingly, the service is not ad supported and does not provide residential listings.

Google will be competing with similar services such as 1-800-YelloPages owned by AT&T, TellMe recently purchased by Microsoft and 1-800-Free411.

Danny Sullivan raises an interesting point about who is missing from the 411 markets.  "Yahoo is noticeably absent from the group and has speech assets and speech professionals working there (former Nuance employees). So this may prompt further attention to a voice-based local search offering at Yahoo."

It will be worth watching what kind of impact Google will have on other competitors and what users will think of their latest offering.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft was negotiating to pay up to $800 million for Mountain View, Calif.-based Tellme, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Microsoft said the deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2007.

Tellme’s voice-activated services can be used for tasks such as telephone call center service and speech recognition internet search.

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It looks like you can chalk this one up as gossip that actually came to fruition. The last week has been rife with speculation that Microsoft would be purchasing TellMe. It was actually one of the more prominent news pieces until Viacom came along and stole the spotlight by dropping a billion-dollar bomb on YouTube.

TellMe is a service that can help you find local businesses, get driving directions, check sports scores, receive updated stock quotes, weather updates, follow the latest news, check movie show times and so on. All you have to do is call their toll-free number, listen to a couple of ads, and jot down the information you want.

It’s speculated that Microsoft will seek to implement TellMe’s expertise with it’s own Live Search brand, which could create some interesting services in the realm of mobile search technology.

In that line of thinking, these are some of Microsoft’s clearly defined development goals as a result of the purchase:

Unified communications. Tellme’s voice-enabled services and solutions for enterprise customers complement Microsoft’s unified communications voice services portfolio. This will allow customers and industry partners to build highly scalable voice solutions that leverage rich identity, presence, messaging and application integration.

Speech platform. Tellme’s robust voice-enabled platform helps open new doors for Microsoft’s hundreds of thousands of developers and partners to build innovative speech solutions based on open standards.

Mobile services and search. Tellme’s speech expertise and work in mobile search, combined with Microsoft’s innovative local and mobile search offerings, will help take the mobile search usability experience to the next level.

Software plus services. In the long term, Tellme technology will enhance Microsoft’s many voice-enabled applications, including the Windows Vista™ operating system, the Microsoft Office system, and mobile applications such as Windows Mobile® and Windows® Automotive.

“Speech is universal, simple and holds incredible promise as a key interface for computing,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Tellme brings to Microsoft the talent, technology and proven experience in speech that will enable us to deliver a new wave of products and revolutionize human-computer interaction.”

“Tellme was founded with the idea that anyone should be able to simply say what they want and get it from any device, starting with the phone,” said Mike McCue, co-founder and CEO of Tellme. “Now, with Microsoft, we’ll be able to extend that vision to millions of businesses and consumers around the world.”