Tellme has officially launched three new features to help people do business searches from their mobile phones.
- Tellme by Voice - Just call Tellme as usual (800-555-TELL) and say “business search”. By following the prompts, you will get local business listings. This was active last week, and I tried it out; you can read my thoughts on it at InsideGoogle.
- Tellme by Text - Send a text message to 83556 with a business search (type “business name, place”), and you’ll get back business listings, plus a nice map graphic. I tested it on my Windows Mobile phone, and I got back two text messages, each with one search result, which contained the name phone number, and address of each result, and a web address for the map. It’s ridiculous that they sent the URL, since if I don’t have a data plan, you’ve just wasted my time.
- Tellme by Mobile - Go to m.tellme.com on your phone to download a program that will let you speak into your phone and see results on the screen. Amazingly, on my Windows Mobile phone, it tells me my phone is not supported. That’s ridiculous. You’re owned by Microsoft! Fix it.
Anyway, all three of these are features that are not fully baked. However, based on years of experience with Tellme’s service, I know how they iron this stuff out and make it great, so I have faith. In the future, if you get bought by Microsoft, you delay the product launch till it supports Microsoft products. That’s just common sense.
April 19th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Tellme, Windows Mobile |
no comments
Yeah, it may seem even silly, but until this week, there was no official, sanctioned means of playing Windows Media Player files in Firefox. As a result, if a webpage embedded WMV or another supported format, you’d have to install a third-party plugin (which is never fun, or all that safe). Finally, Microsoft has released an official plugin, as part of their initiative to be a company that plays better. Microsoft’s Open Source Software Lab created the plugin, and you can download it here.
April 19th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Firefox, Media Player, Applications |
no comments
The latest comScore data is out, and Microsoft Windows Live Search saw its market share rise 0.4%, the biggest gain of any search engine. Google gained 0.2%, with only Yahoo losing to pretty much everybody.
| U.S. Search Market Share |
|
March ‘07 |
Feb. ‘07 |
| Google |
48.3% |
48.1% |
| Yahoo |
27.5% |
28.1% |
| Microsoft (MSN) |
10.9% |
10.5% |
| Ask.com |
5.2% |
5.0% |
| AOL |
5.0% |
4.9% |
It ain’t much, but it isn’t the only gain Microsoft has had in the last few months. With Google flying so high, gains in the search market aren’t easy, so the fact that they are showing anything means Microsoft actually has a shot in this thing. Avoiding losing now is the first step, and without it there wouldn’t be any way to win later.
April 19th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Yahoo, Live, Google, Windows, Search, General |
no comments
Joe Wilcox pointed out this great ad on Microsoft.com using a very old photo of Bill Gates:
It sends such a great message. The whole world over knows the story of Bill Gates, his enormous success coming from a very modest start creating software, and in a simple photo tells people everything they need to know about how software development can be very exciting and very rewarding.
The other interesting thing: This wouldn’t have been the smart thing to do several years ago, not before Gates’ reputation changed from hardcore aggressive evil businessman to kinda endearing nerd who did good and became a huge philanthropist.
Microsoft keeps running all these ads talking about a people ready business. How about showing real people! Bill Gates is just the start, these ads need to feature real people, in real situations, talking about how they really use Microsoft products. Have Bill Gates tell us about the cool Microsoft stuff he uses in his office, but also have a nurse in a hospital saying how she uses Microsoft, and a poor family using Encarta for homework, and a small business using Microsoft’s free accounting tool.
Microsoft’s “people ready” ads show thin, typical young to 40s people in a corporate environment. They need to get more personal, and get real, to show us people ready. If I was working there, I’d do the reverse of Channel 9, going to the customers instead of the employees, and asking them to tell us how they’ve succeeded using Microsoft products. That’s a huge untapped way to show off what Microsoft can and already does do.
April 19th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Developers, Corporate |
2 comments
Gamestop has announced an improved trade-in program for the Xbox 360, letting current owners of 360s to upgrade for less by turning in the console they already own. You can get $250 for a Premium 360, $200 for a Core system, or $50 for an original Xbox. Premium owners can basically get a new Elite 360 for $230, Core owners for $280, and Xbox owners for $430.
It’s not a great deal, paying $230 for one hundred gigabytes, HDMI and a black finish, but if you were considering dropping $180 for the bigger hard drive, they know you might consider an extra fifty to go black. Also keep in mind that conflicting reports say you need to actually use the trade-in to buy an Elite, otherwise you don’t get the same cash back.
In other news, the Daily Show and Colbert report are finally on the Xbox Live Marketplace, at the kind of overpriced value of 160 Microsoft Points, or two dollars. Considering that the show has little value after a few days, they should try to drop the price drastically on older episodes. You won’t sell a month-old Daily Show for more than 20 points, and it will help promote the show and sell more new episodes.
Also, Microsoft is offering a $100,000 distribution deal for someone to create a TV pilot that will be produced for Xbox Live. Seems like it’s an experiment to see if they can produce original content to sell to Xbox owners. Good luck, I say.
April 19th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Xbox Live, Xbox 360, Xbox |
no comments
Hugh MacLeod, now working at Microsoft, is featuring a series of stuff around this “Blue Monster“, designed to inspire people at and about Microsoft. I think it’s a great message, and don’t be surprised if you see more of the Blue Monster in the future, at conferences and the like.
Maybe the Blue Monster as a Microsoft mascot? Yeah, he looks kinda mean, but Microsoft needs its balls back.
(via Mark Relph)
April 19th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Corporate |
3 comments
