ad supported 411 is peek into future

Jingle announced that they will use a patent related to ad supported 411 offensively, possibly seeking licensing royalties from competitors that also use ad supported 411.  Jingle is the free 411 leader, but other players include Microsoft, AT&T, and Google. 

Only time and possibly patent litigation will determine if the Jingle announcement is just PR, or related to Jingle negotiations with a possible suitor or partner, or a real threat to their competitors, but ad supported 411 is a fascinating area to watch, because 411 is just the start of more global voice-based Internet search from mobile phones - I agree with Greg Sterling's description at Search Engine Land: "voice-initiated mobile search...is an immediately accessible mass-market approach to local mobile search because it draws on an existing, installed base of mobile directory assistance users and doesn't require any real learning or consumer behavior change." 

So watching the competitors in ad supported 411 (Jingle has raised more than $50 million dollars to focus purely on 411, Google's entry into this space may be huge, Microsoft can always make things interesting, and AT&T...well they can be ignored) will be a good glimpse into the future of voice-based Internet search from our mobiles, and voice-based mobile Internet search could end up being the equivalent of Googling from our PCs today.