For those interested in updating your speech rec parameters, SpinVox had compiled a list of popular US and Canadian slang. The company’s Voxgeist dictionary is tuned into a country’s ever-changing vernacular.

For your enjoyment, here are the Canadian words, ranked in order of popularity, after the jump.

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Well, I would, if it hadn’t already passed, and I was Catholic. You may remember my announcement last week that I’m testing a new product and will post my reviews on the ST blog. So, which vendor am I reviewing? Hints: it’s related to mobile, free [I <3 beta], and integrates Web 2.0 into its business plan. The full scoop after the jump!

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It’s time for another edition of the Speech Tech blog’s regular feature, “Crushes & Hexes.” Appearing every Wednesday, we highlight companies, places, technologies, or people we deem praise-worthy, or cringe-inducing within the speech/tech/IT world. As always, your feedback is appreciated! Email us at blog@speechtechblog.com if you have a crush or hex item you’d like to see online.

Crush: Speech Technology in the Mobile Market
Why We’re Loving It: After a few days of uncertainty regarding Nuance and Android, we got a definitive answer yesterday from Mike Thompson at Nuance (see yesterday’s post). The verdict: “We’re actively participating,” Thompson says. Cha-ching! In other Nuance news, the company announced it had signed a multiyear deal with Samsung to incorporate its speech recognition technologies into Samsung mobile phones. But one of the biggest news items was SpinVox’s $200 million-announcement: the company received that much in fundraising rounds with investors like Goldman Sachs. After an impressive showing at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, SpinVox has really been hitting it big-time, and with the $200 million, they’ll be doubling the number of mobile providers carrying its voicemail-to-text technology, as well as investing in an Advanced Speech Group in Cambridge.

Hex: Vishing - Giving VoIP and Contact Centers a Bad Name
Why We’re Hating: Following VoiceCon, I kept in touch with Krishna Kurapati, president of voice and information security company Sipera Systems. He sent me a brief email yesterday about “vishing,” or the use of VoIP/Internet phones to trick callers into thinking they’re getting in touch with a call center, when in fact their personal information is being poached by fraudsters. I’m too young to remember, but my mom tells me that people were hesitant to use ATMs when they first hit the scene — I worry that, because VoIP is still relatively new to the call center, that this will make people not afraid of speaking with their company, but also help them learn more about identity protection. In a February 2008 article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, writer Teresa Mcusic put it this way:

These so-called “vishing” attempts are on the increase because costs are going down for international phone calls, thanks to Internet phones, and identity-theft call centers are popping up all around the world targeting the U.S.

[Photos courtesy Wikipedia & SecureComputing.com]

Whoa. Remember when IBM promised they would spend $100 million on UC software? Well today, British voicemail-to-text provider SpinVox got news that they raised $100 million in funding from Goldman Sachs and other investors. According to an article from CNet.com, this $100 million is only part of the company’s funding — so far they have raised $200 million total, including this latest round.

SpinVox says it plans to increase the number of countries and languages serviced by its VTT software, as well as form more partnerships with companies like Skype, and other mobile providers. What does all this mean for the company’s long-term future? Well, according to that same article, SpinVox’s CEO, Christina Domecq, “isn’t looking for a buyout or an IPO, but is keeping her options open.” Indeed.

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

If I ever form a company that provides unified communications, this will be my logo:

If the all-seeing eye is too big brotherish, I’ll just use a picture of Richard Marx looking forlorn.

Still, UC in principle unsettles me. I like the idea of unified messaging and the integration of otherwise-unwieldy contact information, but presence indicators have a creep factor that I suppose I’m going to have to get used to.

That’s because according to a Datamonitor report entitled Trends to Watch 2008: Unified Communications by technology analyst Aphrodite Brinsmead, unified communications is a…well…trend to watch in 2008. If you don’t want to splurge for the entire report, give Lauren Shopp’s webstory a read-through.

Earlier today, SpinVox, which has gotten press because of the voice-to-blog service it provides to Twitter, Jaiku, and Facebook, announced its entrance into the UC arena. Essentially, they’re providing a unified messaging solution, which seems like only a single part of a unified communications suite.

A SpinVox spokesperson wrote me an email: “Voice to text is the strategic heart of the next generation of UC service.”

I like believing that’s true because I work for Speech Technology magazine and I’m always looking for new topics to write about.

But in speaking with Brinsmead, she believes the next stage in UC will integrate presence and contact information with business applications (ie CRM applications). While I can definitely see voice-to-text being a component, claiming it’s “the strategic heart” seems a bit much.

Of course, all of this assumes UC will see greater uptake this year. I’ve heard that much of the hype around UC comes from Microsoft’s Unified Communications product, released late last year. If that product ends up falling flat (Why hello, Vista!), will enthusiasm die off? A December Forrester report by Henry Dewing claims that

Microsoft can win customers in the market with its UC offerings so long as it delivers reliability and scalability, demonstrates the business value of a homogeneous Microsoft-branded UC solution, and satisfies users with its unique communications devices and software UC interfaces.

So we’ll have to see how UC grows this year and what role voice ultimately plays.