Frucall Taps Into Yahoo! Shopping

June 8, 2006

Here's some breaking news from Frucall, the free phone-based comparison shopping service I wrote about recently, that has just announced an agreement with Yahoo! that allows them to tap into Yahoo!'s shopping inventory, allowing users to listen to prices coming from the Yahoo! Shopping price comparison engine on their cell phones.

Shoppers who are not at a computer can call 1-888-DO-FRUCALL (888-378-7467) and type in or read the product's barcode number. Frucall will search the product on both Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon, and will give users the three best advertised prices. Shoppers use a voice menu to “bookmark” items, leave themselves voice notes for later reference, listen to customer ratings, and soon purchase the product from an online vendor. Shoppers can register at Frucall to personalize their Frucall experience and also access more valuable features.

According to Nasser Manesh, CTO of Millenigence (the company behind Frucall), “We are very excited to be at a juncture point between Web 2.0 and m-commerce. Consumers demand access to valuable information no matter where they are, and we are leveraging the latest technologies to provide them with such information in a very simple, easy-to-use, and natural manner.”

Saied Kazemi, CEO of Millenigence, adds, “Increasingly, consumers are turning to online shopping search engines for price comparisons. However, accessing this information on a mobile phone is often time consuming and in the majority of cases handset dependant. For most subscribers their phone is still a voice device. The majority of consumers want a simple, comprehensive service that they can use to instantly see whether a merchant’s “Sale Price” is the “Best Price” compared to other sources, which is what we deliver.”