TMCnet News
Talking search bar helps teach English on Internet(Record, The (Hackensack, NJ) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 21--Jersey City-based search engine company Accoona has introduced a talking search bar to help Internet users learn English, the company has announced. Users can download the feature, which will enable a user to highlight any text on a Web page and listen to it with a male or female voice. The Talking Search Bar is free for the first 60 days. For a one-time licensing fee of $25, you can have unlimited use of the feature, the company said. According to Accoona, the Talking Search Bar technology is the first such application tied directly to an Internet search engine. Accoona designed the feature for Internet users who want to learn and pronounce English or enhance their English-language skills. The application also can used by U.S. and United Kingdom preschoolers, elementary-school students and others learning to read English, such as English as a second language or adult literacy students, the company said. Accoona, a tech start-up that has received attention from many industry players, has $100 million in financial backing from private investment funds and strategic business agreements with Dun & Bradstreet, Euro News, FAST Search and Transfer, GuruNet, Moreover and Yahoo. The company's chairman is Eckerd Pfeifer, the former president of Compaq. Accoona began in 2004 in partnership with the China Daily Information Company, the largest English-language Web and media destination in China and the official English-language news site of the Chinese government. The China Daily Information Company on Thursday separately launched the Talking Search Bar technology for Chinese Internet users through its exclusive partnership with Accoona. "The Talking Search Bar is the next step in the fast-accelerating evolution of Accoona as one of the Web's premier search engines," Accoona CEO Stuart Kauder said in a statement. "The utility of the technology is virtually limitless -- for everyone from toddlers and school-age children in the U.S. just learning to read, to Web browsers in France and China who want to read and learn English." The company expects to launch other languages this year. |