Tellme Networks, Inc.
was an American company founded in 1999 by
Mike McCue
and Angus Davis,
[2]
which specialized in telephone-based applications. Its headquarters were in
Mountain View, California
.
Tellme Networks was acquired by
Microsoft
on March 14, 2007, for approximately $800 million; the deal closed in late April 2007.
[3]
In 2006, Tellme's phone network processed more than 2 billion unique calls.
[4]
Tellme established an information number which provided time-of-day announcements, weather forecasts, brief news and sports summaries, business searches, stock market quotations, driving directions, and similar amenities. Operating by voice prompts and
speech-recognition
software, it was set up in 2000 as a
loss-leader
service to demonstrate the Tellme functionality to U.S. consumers. The voice of the Tellme service is
Darby Bailey
.
[5]
In early 2012, Microsoft divested itself of Tellme Networks'
interactive voice response
(IVR) service and the majority of its employees to
24/7 Inc.
[6]
The service was moved to a non-toll-free number.
History
[
edit
]
In April 1999, the Tellme founding team, consisting of
Mike McCue
, Angus Davis, Rod Brathwaite, Jim Fanning, Kyle Sims, Brad Porter, Michael Plitkins, Hadi Partovi,
John Giannandrea
, Andrew Volkmann, Anthony Accardi, Patrick McCormick, Danny Howard, Vicki Penrose, and
Emil Michael
assembled in
Mountain View, California
.
In 2000, Tellme announced a service that delivered content to
telephones
—a concept called
voice portals
. Early competitors included TelSurf Networks, BeVocal, Hey Anita, and
Quack.com
. Quack.com was founded in 1999 and acquired in September 2000 by
America Online
for its competing service, AOLbyPhone. At least ten additional competitors appeared in 2000 in various attempts to mimic the funding success of Tellme.
[7]
Tellme was also featured in the 2001
documentary
Wild at Start
.
[8]
and was referenced in a 2000
Malcolm Gladwell
article in
The New Yorker
about recruiting.
[9]
In 2008 the company debuted a feature especially for
Christmas Eve
; callers can hear recorded messages from
Santa Claus
. If called on Christmas Eve, Santa will say what state he is traveling over, and exactly what he is doing. In 2009 they added a service that allows you to receive messages from Santa a week early which explain what he is doing to prepare for Christmas.
At the onset of service, as a way to gain more users, they offered a free long-distance call feature called Phone Booth. Callers would call Tellme and were given 2 free minutes of long-distance call time to their desired phone number. That service was later stopped while other services persisted.
Services
[
edit
]
Voice portal customers build Internet-powered, voice-enabled applications on the Tellme Network using Tellme Studio. Tellme Studio is a web-based
VoiceXML
development tool. The Tellme platform is based on
open standards
like
VoiceXML
,
CCXML
, and
VoIP
.
The Tellme Voice Portal which includes
directory assistance
used to be accessed by calling (800) 555-TELL (8355).
[10]
When Microsoft sold Tellme to 24/7 Inc in 2012, the number changed to the non-toll-free (408) 752-8052, rebranded as The Information Line.
[11]
In September 2019, the service was revamped and rebranded again as Voice Info, with once again a toll-free number (866) 895-3124,
[12]
however this number was deactivated in July 2020.
[13]
The old Microsoft
Bing 411
1-800-CALL-411 number can now be used to access Voice Info by pressing 9 when connected.
AT&T Wireless
customers can access Voice Info directly by dialing *8 (formerly #121).
[14]
Customers
[
edit
]
Some of the services running on Tellme's network include directory assistance (
4-1-1
) for
AT&T
and
Verizon
(landline), AT&T's Voice Info (*8), customer service for
Merrill Lynch
,
E*TRADE
Financial,
American Airlines
, and
e-commerce
services for
Fandango
.
[15]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Liedtke, Michael (March 1, 2008).
"Tellme's Tale As Microsoft Subsidiary"
. Associated Press via Wired News
. Retrieved
2008-03-01
.
- ^
"Tellme's Naughty Schoolboy"
,
Business Week
, March 13, 2006, archived from
the original
on March 14, 2006
.
- ^
"Microsoft Purchase of Tellme Adds Voice To Web Initiative"
,
The Wall Street Journal
, March 15, 2007
, retrieved
2009-06-01
- ^
"Tellme and Cingular Plan Broader Directory Service"
,
The New York Times
, October 9, 2006
.
- ^
Weingerten, Gene.
"Directory Persistence helps find Darby"
.
Star-News
.
- ^
"Microsoft offloads some speech-focused assets, employees to 24/7"
(
World Wide Web
log)
,
ZD net
, February 7, 2012
.
- ^
"As Silicon Valley Reboots, the Geeks Take Charge"
,
The New York Times
, October 26, 2003
.
- ^
"Dept. of "Oops" ? After four years, heeere's "Wild at Start," a documentary celebrating visionary new-economy entrepreneurs!"
,
Salon
, July 25, 2001
.
- ^
Gladwell, Malcolm
(May 29, 2000),
"The New-Boy Network"
,
The New Yorker
, archived from
the original
on July 28, 2012
.
- ^
"800-555-TELL ("Tell Me") - How does it make money?"
. 2 January 2003.
- ^
"800-555-TELL ("Tell Me") - How does it make money?"
. 2 January 2003.
- ^
"Blindtech@groups.io | a similar service to tell me is now available"
.
- ^
"What Happened to the Voice Info Service That Replaced Tell Me?"
.
- ^
"#121 Voice Info"
. 21 July 2020.
- ^
Press Release
, Tellme, August 21, 2006
.
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