VSearch to be embedded into handsets from leading handset manufacturers

Jun 6, 2007 14:11 GMT  ·  By

VoiceSignal, a provider of mobile voice technology solutions, announced a partnership with mobile advertising company AdMob to enable highly relevant advertisements for VoiceSignal's newly announced VSearch voice search service. Users with mobile data service plans will be able to access VSearch for free, as the solution will be supported by advertising.

"VSearch is a new paradigm for the future of local search. Information is easier to get for the end user because it is ad-supported," said Rich Geruson, CEO of VoiceSignal. "We are delighted to be partnering with industry leader and market innovator in AdMob to bring this to market."

VSearch is a mobile search service that allows consumers to find information and mobile content by speaking a search term. VSearch will be embedded into mass-market handsets made by the world's leading handset manufacturers and will be accessible via a button on the handset. After the user presses the button, VSearch prompts them to speak the location and name or category of a business. The system then sends the processed audio information to the VSearch server via the mobile data network where the user's query is converted into text by the VSearch speech recognition engine. After this, the server sends back the requested listings along with relevant, interactive advertisements. The user can review the information, place a call to the business and get a map of its location and more. In the future, VoiceSignal plans to enhance VSearch with a series of new information services such as traffic, weather information, movie times, stock quotes, horoscopes and sports scores.

"We are excited to partner with VoiceSignal in delivering a more relevant mobile experience to the mobile subscriber," commented AdMob European Managing Director, Russell Buckley. "VoiceSignal's local search service adds a significant new dimension of highly targeted inventory to our advertising partners."