MobileCrunch noticed Yahoo has added voice search capabilities to their Yahoo One Search iPhone App. I spent a few minutes testing it out and I have to say, that is does an okay job. I didn’t conduct enough tests to really compare it against Google’s iPhone voice search feature. They are both different in how they work.

First let me show you Yahoo’s voice search for a test on [who is barry schwartz]:

Step 1: Click on the “Press + Speak” button to activate voice search:

Step 2: Speak when button turns red and then tap it again when you are done talking:

Step 3: The button turns blue to show it is processing your search:

Step 4: Yahoo shows the search result, and in this case, wrong (I tried three times):

Google’s voice search works a bit differently.

Step 1: Either put the phone to your ear or click the microphone icon:

Step 2: Just speak and when you are done speaking, Google knows and shows that it is processing your search:

Step 3: Google displays search results:

So, Google is one step less, which is nice for a mobile search app.

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Voice Search | Search Features: Search By Voice | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Search

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz

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