Internet startup Onebox.com, best known for its Internet fax and voice mail service, is branching into the greeting card business -- courtesy of Amazon.com.
San Mateo, California-based Onebox.com's digital voice technology will allow Amazon.com customers to add their own voices to electronic cards they send.
Amazon.com launched the free electronic card site in April, hoping wide usage would give a boost to its other businesses. Onebox is hoping its partnership with Amazon.com -- and other deals to be announced in coming months -- will make its voice technology a standard in e-commerce.
The whole field of e-commerce "is just begging to be voice-enabled," said Ross Bott, Onebox.com's chief executive. "Imagine being able to record your voice as part of an [online] auction."
Onebox.com will make money from audio or text advertisements in emails and Web page views. It also may simply provide its voice technology to partners for little or no cost, hoping to spur its rapid adoption across the Internet.
The voice technology could also be used to voice-enable portals and content sites on the Internet, Bott said. Whether a broader market is ready for the service remains to be seen.
Unlike some competing technologies, Onebox's voice technology doesn't require customers to download software. The software and messages reside at Onebox's Web site, accessible when a user logs on. That's an advantage for people who don't want to go through the hassle of downloading RealAudio or Windows Media Player.
Onebox.com is also hoping its e-commerce ventures will drive customers to its unified messaging service, which is preparing to ramp up again after surging to 425,000 customers in its beta phase.
Onebox competes with Jfax.com and other Internet fax and voice messaging services.
"It will take a while for people to get used to the concept," said research fellow Martin Reynolds of Dataquest. "People could be worried that somebody might try to hack their voice mail on the Internet."
