In something of a strategy shift, Jingle Networks is introducing what it's calling JingleConnect. It's an effort to build an ad network, beyond in-bound 800-Free-411 calls, incorporating "call centers, information lines, or any high volume call environment where their consumers are on hold." While Jingle has historically been the leader in  free 411 services, partly because it's the incumbent, over the long term it's potentially vulnerable to competitors (e.g., Goog411) and the "mobile Internet" more generally.

Ad-supported, free 411 services are appealing to consumers and potentially to advertisers because of the massive potential reach these services have. They're totally device independent. Yet nobody is doing any consumer marketing to build awareness, which our research shows is generally low among the US population.

Some analyst firms have made big bets on free 411 as a driver of mobile ad revenues. Initially we had agreed that free 411 services would potentially be a broad consumer entry point for mobile search and a strong advertising opportunity. However, that does not seem to be the trajectory of the market of late. We still believe that free 411 services have a role to play and will generate meaningful call volumes over time, depending on awareness. But they won't be as significant a way, as once predicted, that people get information on the go.

The JingleConnect effort is logical. But there's a question about the quality of "leads" generated in these other environments (e.g., consumers on hold in call centers). It would seem to me that JingleConnect (depending on the distribution) is probably most valuable as an awareness vehicle rather than a direct response medium, which is primarily how free 411 is positioned. 

Jingle claims 130,000 advertisers today. Some of those are direct but many of those are delivered via third parties (e.g., Superpages, ServiceMagic, Ingenio/YellowPages.com).