Just recently, Ask.com entered the mobile directions fray by introducing speech-activated driving directions. That's right - by using "Click to speak", you just tell the service your current address or intersection and it will send you a text message with directions that can be utilized by walking or driving. This impressive step forward eliminates the necessity of having to type in the address.

This is especially important if you are a) a slow typist on a mobile phone or b) driving and need to have your attention on the road and not keying in your current address.

Here's how it works. Go to Ask.com Mobile's homepage at m.ask.com, go to the "Voice Entry" link next to "Directions". The service will call you, allowing you to speak your starting address and ending address. You can also access the voice entry if you've found a business through their mobile yellow pages by speaking your starting address. The system uses the business' address as the ending address automatically.

Very cool technology. So far it has worked pretty well for us and will only get better as the speech service refines it's voice recognition.