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Yesterday, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that it is purchasing Tellme Networks, which develops voice-recognition technologies. The price tag was not disclosed but the rumor is that it was $800 million (this is according to The Wall Street Journal, which is a paid service).

To get some perspective on the deal, I was able to interview Dipanshu Sharma, who is the founder of V-Enable. He is an expert on mobile search and even has some patents on the topic.

What's the background on V-Enable?

V-ENABLE, Inc. is the leading provider of mobile voice search and mobile directory assistance solutions, offering the fastest and most accurate voice search available in the mobile environment. V-ENABLE's patented voice search coupled with text-based user interface technology allows mobile users to simply input and search using their voice and receive personalized content and information on their phone. No more complicated menus to navigate or triple tap typing required.

V-Enable was founded in 2001, headquartered in San Diego and is backed by Softbank Capital and Palisades Ventures (amongst other investors)

What is mobile search? Why is it important?

Mobile search is different than search on the internet. Mobile search is used for search for music, ring tones, images that can be used to personalize your handset or for local information such as businesses, maps, driving directions and weather. On a small mobile screen and a small keypad, users are not looking to research articles like they do on the internet.

Mobile content is growing rapidly. Newer phones are able to download full track music and stream video. There are more than 2 million tracks and you need a search solution to find what you are looking for. Same applies for local information, there are 14 million businesses and 150 million residential listings.

V-Enable recognized early on that the standard interface (of triple-typing) for search is not what users are looking for, a new innovation was needed. We invented multimodal interface that lets users speak their search and see results on the phone screen, all in less than 2 seconds. We have deployed our technology/solution across carriers in North and Latin America and have conducted millions of mobile searches (both voice and text).

What's your take on the Microsoft deal? See other deals from players like Yahoo inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) or Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)?

We believe the deal is directly tied to Microsoft's desire to acquire Tellme's mobile assets and voice utterances (utterances are the actual voice clips used to improve speech recognition accuracy). This announcement is great news for V-ENABLE as we have the most multimodal voice utterances captured over a mobile phone, so this not only validates our business but also positions us for growth. We are currently indexing the U.S. and Canada with plans to add Europe for local business search.

We see the combination having a rippling effect, as other search companies (Yahoo/Google/AOL/ASK) will need to find ways to compete with the Microsoft/Tellme solution.

Next few months are going to be rather interesting for this industry.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.