Ananova

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Ananova was a Web-oriented news service that originally featured a computer-simulated newscaster as an embodied agent named Ananova programmed to read newscasts to Web users. Ananova is now a subsidiary of mobile telecommunication operator Orange SA. Orange bought Ananova in 2000 from the Press Association (PA) in a £95m deal, and has now merged the site into its main news site.

While the Ananova website was still operational and providing written news items until 2009, the animated Ananova character was unavailable from 2004. The website had claimed since that time that the software was under development and would be available again "soon."[1]

The Ananova news service was well known for its collection of unusual news stories, which it features in its Quirkies section, a section which now appears on Orange's news website.

Speech synthesis

The speech synthesis (text-to-speech conversion) used by Ananova was developed using patented methods that applied human inflections to extend the rVoice solution from Rhetorical Systems (now Nuance Communications).[2]

Ananova name scrapped

In April 2010 the owners of the Ananova domain Orange decided to scrap the name Ananova. Users entering the site are now redirected to the Orange news website.

External links

• Ananova.com
• Cyberbabe to read the news - BBC news website Monday, 17 January 2000
• Ananova makes her debut - BBC news website Wednesday, 19 April 2000
• Ananova, the world's first virtual newscaster - YouTube
• Article on Ananova in TheScreamOnline