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A WORLD WIDE WEB THAT TALKS

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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 07:17

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cuteguy

IBM builds a search engine aimed at the estimated fifth of the world’s population that cannot read.

Some 10,000 people worldwide use a version of the Web like no other: it is operated by voice over the telephone. Called the “Spoken Web,” it is the result of an IBM research project attempting to re-create the features and functions of the text-based World Wide Web for people in developing regions with low levels of literacy and technical skills.

Four years since the first prototype was released, the spoken Web is part of everyday life for users in four Indian states and parts of Thailand and Brazil. These people use it to learn of things such as local grain prices or job opportunities. On the spoken Web, telephone numbers replace Web addresses. A person can call in to a voice site and listen to or record content.

Now the project is going through a developmental stage that mirrors one from the regular Web’s history: the debut of search as a way to navigate a growing body of content.

“As the number of voice sites grows, and they get more content, people need a way to find what they want quickly,” says Nitendra Rajput, a senior researcher with IBM Research India. Rajput was an early collaborator on the spoken Web with project founder Arun Kumar.