TellMe Launches a Killer Mobile Product
Michael Arrington
42 comments »
If you have a cell phone that supports the new TellMe mobile application, you will never use 411 again to find a business. It launches today at 5 AM PST.
TellMe mobile is a free Java application that you install on your phone. You can then find normal 411 information via a voice activated menu. Just hold the talk button and say the city and state you are searching in. Then say the business name. Phone and address information comes up on the screen. You can then call the business, see a map and/or get driving directions, and send the information to a friend via SMS. I’ve been testing Tell Me for the last two weeks on a Samsung SPH-A900 with Sprint, and I’m hooked (as is Oliver at MobileCrunch). The best part is that the service is completely free.
Like the new Gmail mobile application, TellMe requires a Java enabled phone. There is a list of currently supported devices here.
Click on the image to the right to see a larger view of the process of using the application. If your phone doesn’t support Java applications, you can use a version of the Tell Me service by SMS. Text your query (”pizza San Jose” or “starbucks 94027″) to TELLM and the results will be sent back to you.
Background on TellMe
TellMe was founded in February 1999 by former Netscaper Mike McCue, and is based in Silicon Valley. It now has hundreds of employees. Their core business is operating a number of 411 services for telcos, voice activated customer service lines for companies like American Airlines, and their own 1-800-555-TELL service which provides news and other information over the phone.
The company has raised a whopping $239 million in capital over four venture rounds, although the most recent round was back in 2001. The company is both profitable and cash flow positive - two years ago they were generating a reported $100 million plus in revenue. And while they aren’t commenting, it’s clear that TellMe is on track to IPO this year or next. We’ll see if they manage to beat NetSuite to the Nasdaq.
How does this app deal with for e.g. a thick Indian accent.
It sounds quite impressing.
Does it work anywhere outside the US?
Mike - technically it’s not completely free - you need a data plan to use this service or you pay up the rear end for the data time. I wish the damn carriers would get this data plan crap in check frankly.
I like how this sounds.
“…application that you install on your phone”
Consumer handset installs are pretty much deadly as far as mainstrea adopton is concerned.
This is for Cingular and Sprint only.
That’s an amazing service.
@Allen
I agree entirely. I had a 25MB limit on my BlackBerry and aftering getting Google Local & Google Talk for it, I quickly reached that limit in a few days.
Data plans suck.
“Java Application” … so, as usual … Verizon Wireless customers need not apply.
My wife braces herself everytime I try the 1 800 565 TELL service to find directions. I don’t do it often, only in an emergency, and usually ends with me yelling at the phone, it goes like this, “Windsor Rd… Ok, Binder Rd … Go Back WINDSOR RD … OK, Flinder Boad … AAAACHHIUUUU ….
@ allan - sprint and cingular only? I knew I shouldn’t have switched to t-mobile from sprint.
Oh well, when apple’s iphone comes out, I’m switching back to cingular.
gotta get the iphone…y’know
Weird… I’m on Cingular and have a SE W810i which is supported. Just signed up… received the link to download the app… agreed to the ToS but then get a message popup saying “Selected file is not allowed to be downloaded”. I have several other java apps. loaded on here (including gmail and google maps) and working with no problems.
very interesting. this may be the app the allows Tellme to really start growing again.
the app sounds cool but how is this much different that Google SMS (which just so happens to offer me a whole bunch more than just 411 info)…anyway just another app on my phone I don’t *really* need.
Applications like these make the closed iPhone less appealing. If you cannot extend your phone with utilities like these, then it becomes less useful than another phone which has worse looks, but allows installation of other mobile applications.
Damn I’m glad I live in the Netherlands every time I hear those problems you have with carriers, and them not allowing people to run what they want. I have a T-Mobile subscription with an unlimited data plan (GPRS, 9 euros/month) but here everyone can pretty much run what they want on their phone. I’d hate to buy an expensive phone and then get restricted by some stupid carrier who tells me what I can and can’t do.
But other than that, nice app, if the voice recognition works well enough
Tellme has done it again! I have downloaded the application and it works amazingly well.
Very neat application.
This seems to step completely on Google’s toes for their ‘Voice interface for a search engine ‘ Patent. Wonder how they will respond?
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi.....=7,027,987
It does not work on my BlackBerry Pearl from T-Mobile w/ Unlimited Data
The mobile information services space is heating up. Too bad the telco’s can’t agree on any standards and phone applications are never ubiquitously supported. Until that time, I still prefer to get my mobile info over text, using 4INFO (www.4info.net) or Google SMS (sms.google.com).
Having worked on an integration project with TellMe before, I can tell you their voice recognition is never as pretty as their demos.
Ahah… great to finally see that multi-modal (speech in/text-html out) apps are getting adoption. Have been involved in some of this work in 2000 and at that time the back end technology was there but the handsets just didn’t support the capability (capturing the voice and sending it through the data channel).
There’s tons of possibilities with this type of applications and TellMe is in the thick of it. Want to see movie? Instead of telling the computer what theatre you want, and being read back a list of movies, you get it in text which is a WHOLE lot more convenient. Then you scroll, pick one and click on buy!
Also it makes voice apps more user friendly - in the past, calling up to a voice-enabled service - you’re forced to converse with the computer and when the computer just cannot understand you, you’re forced to abandon the call. Now, you have another “mode” to interact with the application (type the city/state etc.).
Grr, it won’t let me download on SonyEricsson W300i. I think it’s because I use T-Mobile instead of Cingular. Had same problem with GMail Java client originally.
If anyone else has download the SonyEricsson versionI will pay them $20 for it. E-mail tellme.beta@willsllc.com and I will walk you through offloading the JAR from your handset and e-mailing it to me. I want to play with this!
What a cool application! But with all the issues/concerns mentioned above, 1-800-Free-411 is still king in this arena. I love Free-411. It’s easy to use and free on any carrier and works on any phone.
Does this mean it will not work on the iphone???
Mike,
doesn’t this application pose a large threat to ALL of their customers (411 services, Jingle, etc?) It would arguably steal share from their customers and could cause a major backlash–seems like silly move for a revenue-less product?
Confused.
Jesse
Does it leverage location from the cell phone or do I have to type in my zip code? This would be a great app if it knew my location (of course my Verizon phone supports BREW not Java so I can’t check it out…when will these wireless carriers get out of their own way)
As far as texting for directions, you can simply SMS Google at GOOGL with, say, mcdonald’s 12345 (where 12345 is your zip) and it’ll respond.
Hello,
We have developed a similar application, but using real people and does NOT require any downloads or installations. We are on beta right now and we would love to hear your feedback:
http://www.zypsy.com
Thank you!
Kula
>> How does this app deal with for e.g. a thick Indian accent.
Tellme has tuning for accents all across the US for 7 years now (over 10 billion utterances). We have built acoustical models & pronunciation dictionaries for many different types of speakers. My boss (the VP of Marketing) has an Indian accent and the app works great for him.
Christopher Sisk
>> “Java Application” … so, as usual … Verizon Wireless customers need not apply.
We have a BREW version in development and we are working with Verizon to get in your hands. As you probably know, Verizon Wireless does not allow downloads from 3rd parties to their phones. Verizon does listen to their customers, so let them know that you want Tellme on your phone!
ben
>> My wife braces herself everytime I try the 1 800 565 TELL service to find directions. I don’t do it often, only in an emergency, and usually ends with me yelling at the phone, it goes like this, “Windsor Rd… Ok, Binder Rd … Go Back WINDSOR RD … OK, Flinder Boad … AAAACHHIUUUU ….
Ben, I know what you mean
I hope you find directions in our mobile app easier. Remember, you can always just type in your starting address. You can also save your starting addresses so you won’t have to input them again in the future. Let us know what you think at beta@tellme.com
dan
>> the app sounds cool but how is this much different that Google SMS (which just so happens to offer me a whole bunch more than just 411 info)…anyway just another app on my phone I don’t *really* need.
Dan, you can also txt TELLM (83556) too. WAP based maps are coming soon to that service…
iVersus
>> What a cool application! But with all the issues/concerns mentioned above, 1-800-Free-411 is still king in this arena. I love Free-411. It’s easy to use and free on any carrier and works on any phone.
I hear you can call 1-800-555-TELL and say business search. Try it out and tell us what you think.
Useless. Does not run on Nokia phones, you need the US carriers. This sort of thing should be passe by now.
Hi Jesse,
Could you perhaps get in touch with me regarding porting your killier app to a larger base of MIDP 1 and MIDP 2 J2ME and BREW device? We’re a pure play porting services lab in India having done work for Disney, Sony, Warner, Sega amongst others. My email is vishal@theportinglab.com . If this is something you dont handle - i’d appreciate if you forwarded this to the right person in your company. Thanks much. - Vishal
sounds cool but not really free. You need to be paying for a data plan! and you have to be on cingular or sprint. i’m on cingular but do not pay for data. and really one more app you to download to your phone, so it takes even longer to look up that number before your phone crashes just like my pc! sorry, no thanks. I’ll keep using 800free411, the best option.
Tellme suffers from the same problem as most voice regonition systems: they don’t work. In quiet environments, my success rate was well under 50%. (I should note that I don’t have an accent.) In noisy environments - like an airport - it’s pointless. (For my rant on airlines using speech recognition systems when a lot of people are calling from airports, see http://blog.agrawals.org/2006/.....nd-me-now/ )
Many speech recognition systems are based on a constrained list of a dozen or so terms - they guess the probability that the person said “flight status” or “reservations”.
In this case, the software is trying to accommodate large lists of local business names, significantly reducing accuracy. The recognition accuracy was much higher for categories such as “Mexican restaurants” than for specific business names. And if the business you’re trying to look up has an ethnic name, you don’t have a chance.
The application is visually elegant, but the speech recognition technology just isn’t there yet. Even on a 12-key keypad, it’s faster for me to type in the name of a business.
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hi this is rohan & viraj ,we are doing MCA and need some help .
we have taken up the project of voice recognition in J2ME .
what are the requirements of this topic and which books should we refer to
y’all missed that they have free 411 on their 800-555-TELL service now.
I tried the application and it’s quite slow and does not recognize what i’m saying that often
How this application works
it sends the voice through the network to get interpreted, and receives back the information ?
I have very poor signal so may be that’s why