AOLByPhone was an AOL interactive voice

Interactive voice response

Interactive voice response is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF keypad inputs....

 service that began in 2000. It was offered to millions of consumers. AOLByPhone started with the America Online acquisition of Quack.com

Quack.com

AOLByPhone was an AOL interactive voice service that began in 2000. It was offered to millions of consumers. AOLByPhone started with the America Online acquisition of Quack.com, evolving through the subsequent relaunching of Quack.com's Voice Portal as AOLByPhone. AOLbyPhone expanded as AOL...

, evolving through the subsequent relaunching of Quack.com's Voice Portal as AOLByPhone. AOLbyPhone expanded as AOL acquired other voice service companies including eVoice

EVoice

eVoice is a telecommunications service owned by j2 Global Communications, Inc. that manages incoming and outgoing calls using a virtual phone number. The service was founded in 2000 and re-launched in March 2010 with new features, functionality and pricing targeting entrepreneurs and small...

 in 2001 and later InfoInterActive

InfoInterActive

InfoInterActive is a telecommunications company based in the Canada. It was acquired by AOL on May 19, 2001.InfoInterActive was merged into AOLbyPhone....

. Over time, it migrated from an information service (that at one time included Moviefone

Moviefone

Moviefone is an American-based movie listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, theatre information, film reviews, or advance tickets...

), to more of an interactive voice messaging service.

AOLByPhone was initiatally championed at AOL by Ted Leonsis

Ted Leonsis

Theodore John Leonsis is an Internet pioneer, sports team owner, venture capital investor, filmmaker, author and philanthropist. His early new media company, Redgate Communications was acquired by America Online in 1994, and Leonsis became a senior AOL executive for the next 13 years...

, and AOLByPhone was once one of AOL's "web properties" along with MapQuest

MapQuest

MapQuest is an American free online web mapping service owned by AOL. The company was founded in 1967 as Cartographic Services, a division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1969. When it became an independent company in 1994, it was...

, Moviefone

Moviefone

Moviefone is an American-based movie listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, theatre information, film reviews, or advance tickets...

, Digital City

Digital city

The term Digital Community or Digital City refers to a connected community that combines broadband communications infrastructure; flexible, service-oriented computing infrastructure based on open industry standards; and innovative services to meet the needs of governments and their employees,...

 and others. Quack.com and AOLByPhone were notable competitors to interactive voice service company Tellme Networks

Tellme Networks

Tellme. Networks, Inc. is a company founded in 1999 by Mike McCue and Angus Davis, based out of Mountain View, California, in the United States, that specializes in telephone-based applications....

, (currently a division of Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

).