Yahoo Adds Voice Search To iPhone App


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:

Yahoo Search Voice Search

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

Yahoo Search Voice Search

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

Yahoo Search Voice Search

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

Yahoo Search Voice Search

Google’s voice search works a bit differently.

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

Google Voice Search

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

Google Voice Search

Step 3: Google displays search results:

Google Voice Search

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



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.

See more articles by Barry Schwartz >


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