Find the Right Price Using a New Application
Holiday shopping can be stressful, especially when you’re looking at a product in a store, and thinking: Can I find this cheaper somewhere else?
Today Nuance Communications announced that it will power an app that lets customers search for product information on the Web. Using the technology that is found in Dragon Dictation and other Dragon search apps, Amazon’s Price Check lets users speak the name of a particular product and see instant prices for the item on Amazon.com. The app also enables users to take a picture, scan a barcode or type the product’s name into the app to receive matches from Amazon and its online merchants.
Matt Revis, vice president of product management and marketing at Nuance, asserts that many companies are coming to Nuance because there’s a desire to integrate speech into use cases that Nuance supports on mobile devices. “Nuance is really committed to partnering with everyone who’s playing in the mobile ecosystem and bringing the benefits of speech to their experience,” he says. “What you’re seeing here is just the beginning of what is going to be a very broad and exciting participation with the whole ecosystem.”
This kind of app has the potential to level the playing field, says Revis, who adds that the power of the Internet is also about matching people who wouldn’t otherwise find each other. “In this case, people who sell goods on Amazon are going to be matched up with people who want what they have to offer more quickly.”
At the same time, Nuance’s voice technology is also now powering the voice recognition capabilities in the new Ask for iPhone app from Ask.com, an online brand for questions and answers.
Nuance’s voice recognition and interface allows Ask.com visitors to quickly and easily speak questions, and then receive answers from Ask.com on-the-go right from their mobile devices. Ask for iPhone instantly returns the best answer from the Web in response to user questions; if the Web's best answer isn't sufficient, the service then leverages proprietary technology to route the question directly to a relevant Ask.com user.
“The voice-to-text feature really resonates with users, and makes the whole question asking experience on a mobile device easier than ever,” said Tony Gentile, senior vice president of products at Ask.com US, in a statement.
“Speaking a search for information feeds consumers’ need for instant gratification. It’s easier, faster, and sometimes more accurate than typing in what you’re looking for,” said Mike Thompson, senior vice president and general manager of Nuance Mobile, in a statement. “We’ve experienced firsthand the impact that voice technology has on the mobile app experience, which is why we’re creating a developer ecosystem that enables brands like Ask.com to create a simple, fun, and easy-to-use interface that lets consumers get answers and information in just a spoken few words.” To download Ask for iPhone, visit http://itunes.apple.com/app/id394464350