Vlingo

Company name: Vlingo
Where it's based: Cambridge, Mass.
When it was founded: 2006
Year it was a Fierce 15: 2008
Website: www.vlingo.com

Why it was a Fierce 15: Vlingo garnered much attention when it became the voice recognition engine behind Yahoo's oneSearch 2.0 service. Vlingo's voice search technology enabled users to seek out any and all information without following prompts or adhering to specific search terms. Click here for more.

What has happened since it was awarded the Fierce 15: Vlingo continues to play in the voice-recognition field, and localized its voice-recognition technology to handle Indian and Singaporean accents for Yahoo's oneSearch. The company also struck a deal with Research In Motion in June 2008 to get its application on BlackBerry devices, and launched an iPhone app in December 2008.