Tellme…Here I Come…

September 1 was my last day working for eBay. While eBay is in many ways a great company, it wasn’t a great long-term fit for my skill-set and career goals, and it was time to move on to something new…

Starting Monday, I will be moving into a role as Director of Product Management for Tellme Networks. Tellme is the world’s leading voice search provider, serving the consumer through both their product and their enterprise platform offerings.

You’re likely familiar with many of Tellme’s products and services, perhaps without knowing it:

  • Tellme supports information search through their 1-800-555-TELL phone service. Dial that number from any phone, and receive sports scores, stock quotes, movie listings, etc.;
  • Tellme provides the Directory Assistance (DA) engine used by several phone carriers when you dial 411 (over 2 billion DA queries per year!);
  • Tellme is the platform behind the free 1-800-555-1212 national business directory;
  • On the enterprise platform side, Tellme provides one of the world’s largest and most-scalable voice search/response systems. Have you ever used your phone to search for stock quotes through E*Trade (1-800-STOCKS-1) or Merrill Lynch (1-800-MERRILL)? Perhaps you’ve ordered pizza through Domino’s national 800 line (1-800-DOMINOS)? Scheduled a pickup or tracked a package through the FedEx national service number (1-800-GOFEDEX)? Or scheduled a trip through the 800 numbers provided by American Airlines or Orbitz.com?
  • These are just a few of the products and services that Tellme provides through their voice search platform.

    In addition, Tellme provides a robust set of tools and resources to allow developers to create and publish their own voice-enabled applications on the Tellme network. As a developer myself, I’m sure I’ll have plenty more to say about Tellme Studio in the future…

    One of the most exciting parts of working for Tellme is that the company has reinvented itself many times in their seven-year existence, each time creating products and services that proved well-timed for the market, incredibly consumer-friendly and well-designed, and profitable for the business. A great combination, and one that I’m confident will continue.

    I’m looking forward to being part of subsequent phases of Tellme’s growth and success…and I’m sure I’ll have more to say in the coming weeks and months…

    4 Responses to “Tellme…Here I Come…”

    1. Corey Says:

      Congratulations — good luck with your new role - here’s hoping they release many new products or services based on their tech (and they don’t need to change their name to “Told Me”…

      I just started with Steve Case’s new company, Revolution (healthcare portal primarily). Odd after ~7 or so years at AOL - but certainly the time to move on.

      -C

    2. Julia Wilkinson Says:

      Hi Jason!

      Wow..you’ve left eBay! Congrats! I wish you good luck in your new gig and I’m sure you’ll be great.

      Hey, I have a pic of you from your poker tutoring at the last eBay Live in Vegas..let me know if u want a copy..just email me.
      Julia Wilkinson

    3. angela Says:

      Hey! Have you built anything on Tellme studio? I’m curious how useful it is for developers and how good their apps come out for me as a user :)

    4. Jason Says:

      Actually, I have built a test application with Tellme Studio. The interface (Voice XML) is easy to learn (for anyone who is familiar with XML), and I was able to develop an application in about an hour, starting from scratch.

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