The Microsoft/TellMe Live Search 411 service has good data, that’s for sure. I tried a few obscure businesses and business types in small towns and it found them with no problem. Ultimately, as a user, if the data isn’t good or it is difficult to tell what data is available, that can make or break the service, regardless of speech technology. This was one of the problems with Dial Directions. The 411 voice is a little annoying, but I *really* do not like the following error: “I’m sorry, it’s not you, it’s me.” I know there is an ongoing debate about blaming the system or the caller, but I’m sort of against both. This is an extreme version of blaming the system and it doesn’t give the caller any idea why there was a problem or a way to correct it. Making matters worse, her whole intonation was different with that phrase - it sounded like someone died all of a sudden, compared to her annoyingly chipper voice previously. If the dialog is constructed well, there should be no blame at all. The caller shouldn’t feel as though they are the problem and they certainly shouldn’t feel lower confidence in the system. It’s not so much error correction as guiding the caller through branching paths based on bumps encountered, as in human-human conversation. As for the service, I also had trouble with barge-in, to the point that I wasn’t sure it was on. In general, the system talked a bit much, especially for repeat callers, but did provide good options and I like being able to share the info.
–Simonie
