SoundHound takes on Siri and Google with new voice search app

While SoundHound hasn't seen the tune-searching success as Shazam, the company behind it is taking a similar stance as the competition. Like Shazam's recent addition of product queries, SoundHound is looking to tackle more than songs too, and it'll do so with a new app called Hound. It's more like Siri or Google Now (taking some design cues from the latter), handling searches for weather, directions, hotels, stocks and much more. And yes, the know-how from SoundHound is baked in as well, so you won't have to wield two apps just in case you need to identify a track by humming.

There's a voice search option that not only allows you to get specific (see above), but it'll let you add a secondary set of criteria once you browse the initial results. All you have to do is say "OK Hound" and speak your search info -- I wonder where they got that idea. Hound also handles spoken requests by allowing you to speak naturally, as it boasts "Speech-to-Meaning" abilities that recognizes language and not just words. Hound is currently in beta on Android with an iOS version set to join soon.