Dianne See Morrison
mocoNews.net
Wednesday, April 23, 2008; 5:00 PM

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) subsidiary Tellme today launched voice search for the BlackBerry that allows users to hold down the "talk" button and say a keyword to receive a list of local results. The downloadable application?which works only on newer BlackBerry models, lets users search for local businesses, movies, traffic, weather, maps and driving directions. AP reports that Tellme hopes to add more categories and features, including sports scores, train schedules, voice dialing and text messaging dictation. While the service is ad-free right now, the company plans to incorporate them into the platform in the future.

Tellme was launched first on BlackBerry, rather than on Microsoft's own platform, because of the devices support for Java. They also plan to launch versions for Helio, Windows Mobile and the iPhone. Microsoft purchased Tellme in 2007 for $800 million. The launch comes just a few weeks after the revamp of Yahoo's OneSearch 2.0, which also includes voice search.

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