Microsoft announced last night that it would buy Tellme Networks, with a view towards using the firm's technology to enable people to search the internet by speaking instead of typing.
Tellme was founded in 1999 and has stated its goal as 'to let anyone say what they want and get it, from any phone'.
The company designs speech services for directory assistance and customer service calls as well as voice-enabled online search. It handles millions of telephone calls daily requesting information such as stock quotes, sports scores, weather, movie times and driving directions, according to Microsoft.
'Speech is universal, simple and holds incredible promise as a key interface for computing,' said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft plans to integrate Tellme technology into its mobile telephone internet search services as well as existing automated voice communications software and to share it with business partners.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
