Google Android Phone Finds Its Voice (Search That Is)

Feb 4, 2009 at 7:44am ET by Greg Sterling

Google is rolling out voice search on the Android platform via the new software update happening this week. That’s also supposed to add a virtual keyboard apparently. The G1 has only a physical keyboard.

CNET points out that the central difference between the iPhone version of voice search and Android’s is the inability to simply hold the phone up to your head and speak (on the iPhone version). On the Android version you’ll need to initiate voice search by pressing a button.

Google trained voice search using the learning from Goog411 (US and Canada only) so it doesn’t recognize British accents or interpret UK voice queries accurately. That problem should be addressed over time however.

Google’s is one of several voice search tools/utilities in the market (beyond directory assistance-like services). Vlingo offers voice search for Yahoo oneSearch and the iPhone, AT&T has an iPhone voice search tool, as do Nuance and Dial Directions.

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, and writes a personal blog Screenwerk, examining the broader world of media and advertising. He also posts at a Local Mobile Search, which is focused on the mobile Internet.

See more articles by Greg Sterling >

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