Google is listening, and iPhone users are talking
According to the New York Times and the Google iPhone page, the big G is about to add voice recognition capabilities to its iPhone search app (iTunes link), with the new version showing up on the App Store any minute now. You'll be able to ask questions (the kind Google can answer, of course; someone else will have to tell you if those pants make you look fat) and get speedy search results returned from the web or your own address book.
[As of Saturday afternoon 3:30pm ET, the new version is still not in the App Store; interestingly, the Google page no longer has the video embed of the voice recognition demo, nor does it show the new feature listing. Perhaps there was a last-minute delay?
Update, Sunday AM: Techcrunch is reporting an anticipated Monday release for the new version. No details given on the reason for the delay. -Ed.]
Update, Monday PM: The app isn't listed as updated in the App Store, but removing the old Google Mobile app from the phone and reinstalling it brings it back with the voice search capability. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
The voice recordings from the application will be sent to Google's servers for processing "in the cloud." Given the size of Google's infrastructure and its ability to transfer gargantuan amounts of data, it may have the advantage over existing voice-driven search apps such as Yahoo's oneSearch. Google execs seem hesitant to quantify the accuracy of the voice recognition software, but here's hoping it at least tops some of the iPhone voice-dialers I've been playing with.
You can see a sample video of Googlers testing the feature in the continuation of this post.
[via Truemors / blogtopten]
