| A growing number of companies that want to reach beyond the universe of PC users have begun developing wireless Web applications to push their e-business efforts. Some companies are trying an unglamorous approach, giving customers access to their sites the old-fashioned way: using the spoken word.
Some recent advances in voice recognition technology are making it feasible to let e-businesses make their content accessible from a telephone handset.
Ask Jeeves, which operates both a public Web site that answers questions typed in by consumers as well as a call center outsourcing business, intends to start implementing voice recognition technology with its site.
Ask Jeeves has formed partnerships with General Magic and Nuance that will let Ask Jeeves provide Web data to callers. But some are betting e-businesses want to bring the technology to more than just consumers. | 
