Jingle Networks’ 800-Free-411 for now is the “free DA” market leader. But it has been joined by a broad range of competitors:

• 1-800-GOOG411 (Google)
• 1-800-Call-411 (MSFT, Tellme powered)
• 1-800-Yellowpages (AT&T)
• 1-800-2ChaCha (”mobile answers”)
• 1-800-The-Info (Verizon)
• 1-800-555-Tell (Tellme)
• 1-800-555-5555 (potentially)

This also doesn’t include the voice-powered (or operator-assisted) applications:

• Yahoo’s oneSearch with Vlingo
• MSFT Live Search with voice
• The Tellme client (a new version launches today for the Blackberry)
• V-Enable’s FreeMobile411

There’s also the mobile Internet itself, which competes with DA in some cases. In the future, mobile social networks may also address some of the queries that might have gone to DA (e.g., category searches). Right now the latter is quite speculative however.

Against that backdrop Jingle needs to continue to develop, market and differentiate its service if it hopes to stay ahead of this increasing competition. One way it has sought to do that is by offering Dial Directions service, which as of today is now available nationally: any location to any other location (by address or intersection).

To test it, I called Free-411 from both my landline and from a mobile phone. The service distinguished between them accordingly and didn’t offer the option to get directions from the landline (because there’s no ability to receive a text). But it did when I called from my wireless phone.

Dial Directions’ service also has the option to skip getting to the highway, which is great. And overall it’s nicely integrated into the Free-411 service and call flow.

Maps & directions are a high demand, high-use category in mobile generally and for DA in particular. It represents one of the motivating reasons people seek local telephone numbers from DA (to then get directions).

The addition of the Dial Directions service to Free-411, beyond providing more utility, also provides more ad inventory at the bottom of various texts that are returned with the directions information.

Dial Directions has a range of interesting additional capabilities that are so far barely exposed to the marketplace. Its speech-enabled events directions is one example. Its “Meet Me” social networking/invitations capability is another. And there’s more in the pipeline.