Mobivox has VoxGirl's number, maybe yours too
If you had just one consumer behavior to cultivate, what would it be?
Mobivox wants your outgoing call.
Here is a 3 minute interview with Mobivox CEO Stéphane Marceau. [That's my ugly mug, by the way. The much more debonair Stéphane, see thumbnail right, follows quickly.]
User experience
When you register at the web site, you give your phone numbers and Skype login info. (Great use case for Skype to support OpenID.) One minute total signup time. Nothing to download. You don't even have to run Skype anywhere.
Get your local Mobivox number.
Call it and talk with VoxGirl. 
(Put VoxGirl on speed dial.)
VoxGirl is your Mobivox agent.
VoxGirl knows your Skype contacts and can call them for you.
VoxGirl can tell you whether your Skype contacts are online or off.
VoxGirl listens for more commands during your call. So ask VoxGirl to add other Skype contacts to a conference call. Or to dial a number and add that person to the call.
VoxGirl can place SkypeOut calls for you. You can speak a phone number or dial it on your phone.
You get the idea.
Mobivox becomes the one number you dial.
Strategy
Once you're conditioned to calling via VoxGirl, watch Mobivox make VoxGirl smarter and more skilled. They should be able to add services before, during and after a call. You'll pay for some of those extra services but the basics will remain free (and keep you coming).
Services I'd love to see this year:
- Build in Jott, speech-to-text transcription forwarded to your email. Great for notes to self and others.
- Record conference calls
- Bridge my voice call into an active text chat
- Play news, sports, or other radio programs as I ask for them
- Speak RSS feeds from Google Reader or Bloglines
- Speak my email
- Google 411, map directions, etc.
- Initiate calls based on my web calendar
- APIs so I can write my own VoxGirl services
Contrast this with GrandCentral. Where GrandCentral's one number manages your inbound calls, giving you control over interruptions, Mobivox's one number turbocharges your outbound calling.
Mobivox is live in 23 countries. Let me know what you think.
p.s. This is a featured video of the day on Viddler's Development Blog.
p.p.s. Other voxgirls on the web include Amanda Ray, backing vocalist for Melanie Susuras Band, and Stockholm's Tina Strindberg.
Technorati tags: skype, skypejournal, openid, skypeout, viddler, video, interview, Marceau, Phil, Phil Wolff, Stéphane, Stéphane Marceau, agent, airplane, api, bot, california, descent, evanwolf, im, jet, landing, milbrae, mobile, mobiles, mobivox, vox, plug-in, robot, sfo, skypeapi, speechdialing, speechrecognition, speechtechnology, speechtotext, texttospeech, ue, ui, ux, voim, voip, voxgirl
Comments
While that truly is an unflattering photo, you do not have an ugly mug, Phil, but perhaps the wrong lens or camera operator. Thankfully, your reporting and writing talents far exceed your skills (or lack thereof) at self portraiture.
Posted by: Eduardo LaLingua | May 14, 2007 10:08 PM