Some cracking new websites that have come onstream
Original article date: April 2001
It’s time to review some cracking new websites that have come onstream recently. The first is at www.customerfeedback.com, the website for Rantscape plc.
This website is a universal complaint centre. Automated software that Rantscape has been running now for over three years has compiled a huge database of company names and email addresses, and has sent automated test emails to over 95% of UK companies that have an internet presence, determining the best email address to complain to within each company. The result is that, if you ever need to complain about something, all you have to know is the name of the company in question, and customerfeedback.com will handle your complaint for you. You go to the site and lodge the complaint; Rantscape then emails it, chases it up, and ‘manages’ the complaint from then on.
You can login and see how the complaint is progressing at any time. The software can tell a standard message when it sees one, so is not easily fobbed off. The site displays a continuously updated ‘Hall of Fame’ so the worst responding companies get their names in print. The site accepts advertising to raise revenue, and will happily accept banner ads from competitors of ‘Hall of Fame’ companies. But Rantscape refused to be drawn on whether the purchase of a top price ‘Gold’ annual ad contract excludes you from appearing in the hall of fame
The next site I found which I particularly like is www.3wSolidModel.com. Capitalising on the cost of training and hardware for modern CAD systems, these guys provide dedicated highly skilled 3D CAD operators based in low labour cost third world countries, available through a live web interface. A special browser plug-in allows you to generate hard copy output when the modelling session is over. The service is available 24 hours a day (running over three shifts) except during the monsoon, when internet reliability is low. Overnight translation between any two CAD systems on the planet is also offered as an optional extra.
Working along similar lines is www.AnyVoice.com. AnyVoice plc has definitely spotted a niche in the voice-to-text market. Users of voice recognition software have realised by now that it needs training before it will recognise your voice, it needs low background noise, and you have to talk very clearly with spaces between the words. Well, not with AnyVoice.
With AnyVoice-Live you start the software running, and then talk into the PC microphone. The text appears at the current cursor position, with a three to five second delay. With AnyVoice-Batch1 you record a big sound file, and then the system translates it into text within an hour. AnyVoice-Batch8 translates sound files overnight (as long as they are submitted by 9pm).
So how does it work? None of the speech recognition is done by software, of course. You are linked via the internet to an English speaking copy typist working from home in one of nine countries. AnyVoice can switch typists over from batch to live at ten seconds notice, and so they manage excellent load balancing.
The latest development (which will be of interest to the stressed executive with the long drive home) is the AnyVoice-Dictatext. This is a hands-free digital Dictaphone that records for two hours, then plugs into the PCMCIA card socket of a PC to unload the recorded speech. Using this and AnyVoice-batch8, you can dictate a report on the long car journey home from work, and it will be typed up (in Word) and in your email inbox the next morning.
The control panel settings you have are interesting. In a security versus translation speed trade-off, you get to choose how long you get with the same typist before AnyVoice switches you to another.
AnyVoice charges an initial setup fee and thereafter charges per 1000 words, but there are extra charges for special functions. For example, it costs about 20% extra to have a medically literate typist, which will stop you having to spell out certain words. For 70% extra, you can have one that understands a Glaswegian accent.
Who says the DotCom boom is over?
April 2001