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NEW YORK - Members of social networking services like Facebook will soon be able to update their profiles by simply making a phone call, instead of having to type on a computer keyboard.
Privately held SpinVox, which has developed technology to convert voicemail to text messages or email, will announce a new service that allows users of Facebook, Jaiku and Twitter social networks to dictate updates to their profiles by calling a specially assigned number.
UK-based SpinVox will then use its voice-recognition technology to convert the speech to text and post it to one of the social networking services, or on all three simultaneously, depending on the user's preference.
"Now social networking is constrained by keyboards," SpinVox Chief Executive Christina Domecq told Reuters. She said she expected people to use SpinVox to immediately post messages on Facebook, whether they are on a busy street or at a rock concert.
The 30-year-old CEO said SpinVox would initially offer the service for free, but she would not say how much it may eventually charge.
She said SpinVox, which now generates revenue by charging service providers a flat fee for every conversion, would probably add an advertising element.
"Over time you'll see advertising models being built in," said Domecq, who envisions messages including embedded ads based on what the caller says. For example a message about meeting at a certain bar could come with a relevant web link.
Facebook is a rapidly growing online hangout. Jaiku, recently bought by Google Inc, and Twitter both let mobile phone users send text messages to groups of friends.
In the meantime, SpinVox is working with communications service providers around the world to build up its original voicemail-to-text conversion service, launched in 2005.
SpinVox also plans to announce that U.S.-based uReach.com will offer its service. UReach plans to charge $US9.99 a month for up to 40 voicemail-to-text conversions, or $29.99 a month for unlimited conversions, Domecq said.
Rivals to SpinVox include speech recognition specialist Nuance Communications Inc as well as software company Microsoft.
SpinVox's voicemail-to-text service has about 250,000 customers, according to Domecq. She said 100,000 joined in the first two weeks that South Africa's Vodacom, owned by Vodafone Group Plc and Telkom SA, offered the service.
Domecq expects several providers, including eBay's Skype internet phone service, leading US rural mobile operator Alltel Corp and another big US wireless service to launch SpinVox in coming months.
As a result SpinVox expects users to swell to 6 million in the second quarter, helping it turn a profit.
"We anticipate we'll be profitable in 2008," said Domecq.
Asked if she planned to eventually take the company public or look for a buyer, Domecq said she would look at all options. Eight years ago she sold her first company, an information technology services provider called NHWC.
But Domecq said SpinVox had not so far received any offers that it is "formally entertaining."
- REUTERS
