InterActiveCorp's Web-based social event planning service Evite is now letting its members access free voice-activated directions to their events via their handset.

Now included in Evite's Send-to-Phone text alerts is a directions phone number for members to call, say their start address or location and receive turn-by-turn directions via SMS. Available immediately nationwide, the voice-activated directions service is a partnership between mobile voice-entry technology service provider Dial Directions and Evite.

"We're very excited to be working with Evite to provide technology and services related to voice entry of locations," said Tuyen Ho, vice president of marketing for Dial Directions, San Francisco, CA.

"Using a keypad to get directions can be very frustrating, so instead of having to spell out and type in where they want to go and where they're starting from on a little tiny screen and a tiny little keypad, all they have to do is use their voice to get directions," she said. "Our technology can deal with hard spellings of street names or businesses or long names."

Evite's Send-to-Phone feature, which already allows Evite users to receive event details on their mobile phone, now offers guests dynamic directions by speaking their start location anywhere, at any time.

Evite users can click the directions link in the Evite event details text message to launch a call to a voice-activated service with speech recognition.

"Evite already has their Send-to-Phone feature letting people enter in any cell phone number to receive a text message from Evite with all the event details," Ms. Ho said. "Now, in addition to event details, at the bottom of that message there is a click-to-call link to our automated voice-activated service."

The service automatically knows the Evite event destination, so users need only say their start address or intersection and instantly receive turn-by-turn directions to their Evite destination via text message.

The free directions feature works from any mobile phone and does not require any GPS, data plan or registration.

"This is a great service for people are on the go," Ms. Ho said. "Perhaps you have a couple of different events, and you might not have time to print out directions, or you don't know where you're going to be coming from.

"If you give us your start location, you get dynamic directions sent right to your cell phone," she said.

Destinations can be an address, intersection, point of interest, landmark or business listing.

Evite has produced a video demonstration of its directions service.

"This is great for tourists," Ms. Ho said. "It's super-handy to be able to say 'Empire State Building' and immediately get directions."

Evite has more than 18 million registered users and facilitates more than 6 million events annually. That translates to more than 200 million invitations, with 24,000 invitations sent per hour.

Dial Directions provides a platform for voice-activated location entry, directions and other LBS powered by speech-recognition and geo-data technology.

The company's platform lets industry partners expand their mobile services with a voice-activated interface, including 411/directory assistance providers, carriers, mobile applications and navigation devices.

Dial Directions has added voice recognition for Jingle Network's 1-800-Free411, which recently added SMS services (see story).

The company's other partners include Ask.com Mobile, Evite and Virgin Mobile USA.
Dial Directions also provides the first free nationwide phone service for driving directions, 1-DIRECTIONS (1-347-328-4667).

"The service that we launched last year and made our name famous was our direct to consumer service, where consumers can dial in and say any address and intersection throughout the U.S. and receive turn-by-turn directions via text message," Ms. Ho said. "There's a level of immediacy there, so instead of printing out directions or pre-planning, you can get everything you need via mobile."

The way that Dial Directions deploys mobile advertising varies from partner to partner.

The company runs advertising at the bottom of text messages and both pre-roll and post-roll voice-based ads.

Text-based ads will have click-to-call or say "For product info, reply Y."

Voice ads at the end or beginning of a call typically say "This call is sponsored byâ?¦" and connects into Dial Direction's voice activated service.

"We work with our partners to figure out best placement for advertising keeping the user experience in mind, realizing that consumers need to get information quickly," Ms. Ho said. "Evite has their own ads as well.

"We share the responsibility of selling ads," she said.

One advantage of a platform that relies on voice and SMS is that the vast majority of U.S. consumers are already comfortable with both.

"Using voice has a very low learning curve, and it is much easier to speak a location as opposed to typing something out," Ms. Ho said. "Companies and carriers looking for ways to make content much more accessible to the common caller, and more than 90 percent of consumers are using very basic phones that have nothing other than voice and SMS.

"We want to hit both markets," she said. "We want to make our service accessible to the majority of mobile phone users today."