Google is being annoying.

September 28, 2005 5:09 PM

How can I make google do what I want? When I search for "tellme alternatives" (I was looking for other VoiceXML platforms), Google returns results containing "tell me". How can I tell it not to? Thanks! (Also, does anyone know how I can search for "com"? allintext doesn't do the trick)
posted by null terminated to technology (6 comments total)

Put quotes around "tell me".
posted by nicwolff at 5:12 PM on September 28, 2005

I mean, around "tellme" - sorry!
posted by nicwolff at 5:13 PM on September 28, 2005

You can also put a + in front of the word you want exactly.
posted by cillit bang at 5:26 PM on September 28, 2005

1. Tellme Alternatives. I think you had the right idea when you said you were looking for other VoiceXML platforms. Searching on "VoiceXML platforms" yields a few good lists. (I personally am partial to NVP, though they've been bought out by scansoft so apparently there may be changes to the product soon.)

2. Searching on COM is indeed tricky. A search for "Component Object Model" works well. Even "com interface" is mostly just noise.
posted by mragreeable at 5:32 PM on September 28, 2005

...well that was easy. It didn't occur to me that '"searchterm"' might be different from 'searchterm'. Thanks guys!
posted by null terminated at 5:33 PM on September 28, 2005

You can also remove terms using the "-" keyword, so if you use this in combination with quotes, you can get pretty close to what you want (ex. search: -"tell me" tellme alternatives).

null terminated: I do vxml development myself, so if you've got any questions feel free to send me an e-mail (should be in my profile).

One place to check out if you're looking for a hosted model like Tellme is BeVocal. We work with BeVocal a lot and are very happy with them, they have a great development environment and logging infrastructure. I've worked with a number of different providers in the past (both hosted and deployed, including Edify, Voxeo, VoiceGenie, and Verascape) and like working on the BeVocal platform the best. They support SIP, VXML 2.0 (and have 2.1 extensions) and have a very good support team.

Ken Rehor also has a page with a good list of voice xml resources on it (though it might be a little outdated).
posted by freshgroundpepper at 5:41 PM on September 28, 2005