Entering data with most cell phone keypads is a quick path to finger cramping—iPhone and Blackberry users excluded. Speech recognition and search engine technology should therefore be the right ingredients for a potent application in the mobile world. One neat app I recently spotted sends a condensed Web page response to a voice query, eliminating long-winded IVR menus. It’s a glimpse into what’s ahead for contact center interactions.

As you’d expect, all the usual suspects have been exploring speechified search engines. But Yahoo’s new speech recognition app, called OneSearch, adds a new twist. It’s a great example of Interactive Voice and Video Response, a technology I’ve written about in earlier posts.

With its new service, Yahoo translates spoken search terms —restaurants, flight numbers, sports teams, etc.—into text input that is automatically passed to the back-end search engine. Instead of a spoken response, a web page containing a list of possible answers is pushed to your mobile gadget’s LCD screen. Users then select a specific entry to access a Web site for more complete information.

Instant answers on your mobile device with minimal exertion.

Yahoo’s service has some gotchas related to the enormous search space that it is handling. On the other hand, web retailers have a much smaller set of keywords and pages to process, and this technology would make ordering products on the run very doable. Hmm, seems like I’m working up to a prognostication…

My prediction: Within two years, IVVR will become an important method for conducting e-retailer transactions.

In the meantime, learn how Val Matula, a researcher at Avaya, is adding multi-media to contact center interactions. And if anyone spots interesting IVVR-like apps, please drop me a line.