Talk:Tellme Networks/Archives/2013

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Acquired by Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/mar07/03-14PowerOfSpeechPR.mspx Mathiastck 22:54, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Closing?

Why is Microsoft shutting down the TellMe service? Is there another similar service that I can use to get current news stories as audio, over the phone, free or not?108.23.147.17 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:19, 5 May 2012 (UTC).

@108.23 - I suspect the decision to shutdown Tell Me is the result of Microsoft wanting to cut some expenses. Toll free number access is not free (though with 2 billion calls a year one can get an amazing rate) coupled with the equipment cost to host the service (electricity, computing power, etc.) they probably just said "Hey, everyone and their dog has a smart phone...voice communication is so 20th century...<etc> I am with you though -- I enjoyed the service and believe there is still a market for it should another company decide to venture that way. It made the most sense for TellMe since they were *selling* the TellMe product (great way to show it off). In the end, I'm not surprised it was killed. TellMe has been going downhill for quite a while, beginning with when they removed the "Extensions" feature (users were able to build their own add-on voice xml apps)

They could have eliminated the toll free number. Most people have free long distance these days. Yahoo once offered a similar service through their voice mail service. That was eliminated a few years ago. 108.23.147.17 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:45, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

As of July 21, it appears that the number for TELL-ME has been changed to 1-888-247-2425. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.211.131.240 (talk) 15:44, 21 July 2012 (UTC)

The sequence of policy announcements, failure to carry out announced policies, telephone number changes, alternations between free-to-the-caller and toll numbers etc. from May through July 2012 is puzzling. What at first seemed a matter of indecisiveness, now seems like some strange experiment to see how users will react to various changes. TellMe has an excellent service, but is marring it with bizarre and annoying behavior. Does anyone have any further ideas as to why they are doing this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tommymic (talk • contribs) 17:26, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Always Busy?

Today July 4 I have called several times and its always busy but I got though once and its exactly the same as 555-tell. Its probably a bunch of people calling to check out the new number — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.108.136.220 (talk) 17:58, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for using gay 4-1-1 ??

The new number, 888-247-2425, which appears to be a near clone of the original TellMe service that operated on 800-555-TELL, says "Thanks for using gay 4-1-1" before disconnecting you, after 3 failed attempts at understanding what you want to do. To see what I mean, try this:

(TellMe Main Menu)

• You: Press # on your phone
• TellMe: "Sorry, I didn't get that..."
• You: Press # on your phone again
• TellMe: "Sorry, I still didn't get that..."
• You: Press # on your phone one last time
• TellMe: "Thanks for using gay 4-1-1. Goodbye!"

I hope I'm not the only one creeped out by this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.20.84.136 (talk) 23:20, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

It doesn't say "gay 4-1-1" it says "Bing 4-1-1". Bing 411 was a service that was offered by Microsoft. It's probably using the same back end servers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.14.65.47 (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Does the company still exist?

The website redirects to the Bing Dev Center, and there are little other indications that Microsoft still uses the Tellme Networks' brand, on Windows Phone 8 for example the name isn't directly in use. On the website it's referred to as Bing Speech, which may be an indication of re-branding. --86.81.201.94 (talk) 16:24, 16 July 2013 (UTC)

Untitled

The link to http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=76214049 is for a trademark, not a patent.

Good catch...but why didn't you fix it?? There aren't that many patents yet anyway. Google Patent Search yields nothing under that number. --zenohockey 03:27, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I prefer not to edit the substantive content of the article directly due to a possible conflict of interest.