Archive for March 2009

Google, Please Talk to Me

 

I just downloaded the speech-enabled search from Google to my BlackBerry flippy. The app brings text search results requested by voice queries (which has been available on the Apple’s iPhone since last year). 

The voice input is activated by holding the send button and utilizes thea user’s location to deliver local results. This will work even if the BlackBerry doesn’t have a GPS chip because Google has integrated its My Location feature into the voice app, and this determines where a user is based on cell tower and Wi-Fi triangulation.

This is just the latest move by Google to expand its presence into the mobile space, as CEO Eric Schmidt has said mobile advertising will eventually generate more revenue than ads on the normal Web (therefore we will devote one of the next SANDIOS round-table to it). 

The voice recognition works really well (even for people with somewhat of an accent ;-). I just wish that it would also read back the results. Isn’t the whole point that I don’t even want to look at the screen?