Less is more as companies explore shopping by voice

When the world shifted from personal computers to smartphones, websites had to slim down to work on smaller screens and slower wireless connections. A similar shift to voice-centric services is again forcing businesses to rethink how they present information to consumers -- and spurring new efforts to help them do so. The software company Adobe, for instance, announced on Tuesday a new suite of tools that could help airlines, retailers and other companies create simple voice interfaces for travel and shopping. That means companies have to figure out how to winnow down those choices to the travel options or products people are most likely to want -- an inherently fraught undertaking. The technology is still in its infancy, and Adobe doesn't have any actual corporate partners to showcase yet.