The Google Operating System blog posted a demonstration by Google of a new Google Translate feature. The feature will be available on Android phones in the next few months and it is named Google Translate Conversations. The video demo below shows how one person is talking English to another person, who responds in German. The […]
Many search marketers have experimented with call tracking and measurement as a way to capture online-to-offline consumer activity and determine which ads and campaigns are generating calls. But there has also been debate about whether unique phone numbers required by call tracking harms SEO especially for local advertisers. Some new developments in the field make […]
Google’s having an impromptu small press “gathering” today at its offices in San Francisco. Topic? “Cool new mobile features.” Want to know more? Stay tuned, as I’ll be live blogging the event that begins at 10am. This is all we know so far: We’ll be unveiling a couple of cool new mobile features at the […]
Google announced that its mobile voice search offering is now available in several, new European flavors. It has been available for English, Mandarin and Japanese until this point. Now Google will be offering voice search in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Image: Google Voice search is popular — though Google so far hasn’t provided any […]
Siri describes itself not as a “mobile search tool,” as I have in the headline, but rather as a “virtual personal assistant.” The company went public with its technology and iPhone app just a few months ago and now Apple has reportedly acquired it for an undisclosed sum that is likely more than $50 million […]
Google leaps language barrier with translator phone from The Times Online reports Google is working on a new tool that would bring instant translation to people. It appears that Google is a couple years away from this coming but they would build on their existing Google Translate and Google Voice features to create an instant […]
When I’ve spoken in the past to people at Siri we’ve discussed and they’ve struggled a bit with how to present and “position” what they’re doing. Described as a “virtual personal assistant” — and called the “Siri Assistant” in fact in its formal launch — the company’s much anticipated iPhone app has arrived. There will […]
We’re really just at the beginning of the era of “mobile search.” Even what we think of as “search” will be dramatically altered by innovations in mobile. In this first phase the transfer of what might be called the “query box” (and related links) into mobile is complete. In time, however, we many even come […]
Tellme has been in the speech, automated directory assistance and “voice search” segment for a decade. Two years ago the company was acquired by Microsoft for roughly $800 million. Since that time the two companies have been working on integration and developing next-generation services. Tellme powers Microsoft’s LiveSearch 411, among other services. Today, two years […]
Microsoft (so far) has been unable to buy Yahoo or Yahoo search assets, so it instead continues to take search talent away from the company. Last year Microsoft successfully lured engineering lead Qi Lu from Yahoo to become head of the company’s Online Services Group. Redmond also recently nabbed Sean Suchter from Yahoo. Now Bloomberg […]
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 […]
The Google Mobile Blog announced that the Google Mobile iPhone App, now with voice search, is finally live as an update in the iTunes App store. So I downloaded this morning and decided to offer you a video demonstration of how it works. Before showing you that, let me link you to some of the […]
Yesterday, arguably the top tech story of the day was Google’s introduction of voice search for its iPhone app. As of this morning, the updated app still isn’t available in the iTunes store (that’s not Google’s fault). I spoke yesterday afternoon with Google’s Mike Cohen and Gummi Hafsteinsson about the app and how it would […]
The New York Times reports in Friday’s newspaper that Google’s iPhone app will be updated with voice search capability. The move should come as no surprise: The launch of Goog411 in 2007 brought immediate speculation that mobile voice search was on the way, and Google tells the Times that data collection from the Goog411 project […]
Google is introducing an Elections Search Gadget that allows users to search transcripts of political speeches and videos that appear on YouTube candidate channels. The speech recognition technology (also shared with Goog411) produces a transcript of the videos, which can then searched by users of the Gadget to find precise phrases or keywords in speeches […]
Today Google announced a download that enables voice search for Google Maps on Blackberry devices. This is very much like the existing Windows Live Search for Mobile service with voice or Tellme for Blackberry devices (also Microsoft). Yahoo also recently integrated Vlingo’s speech technology into oneSearch.
The Google Blog announced that GOOG-411, Google’s voice enabled search service, is now out of beta. To use GOOG-411 just dial 1-800-466-4411 (aka 800-GOOG-411) and listen to the voice prompts. As part of a promotion for GOOG-411 leaving beta, Google said they will unveil which Googler is the voice behind GOOG-411.
MIT’s Technology Review published an interview with Google Director of Research Peter Norvig that explores his (and presumably Google’s) thinking about problems in search and “next-generation” search functionality that Google is working on. There’s nothing strikingly new in the interview but it’s an interesting overview and window into some of the current projects.
Tim O’Reilly has an interesting post that went up last Friday on Google’s potential motivation in rolling out Goog411. The obvious answer to the question “Why is Google doing this?” is mobile voice search and directory assistance ($13 billion in annual revenue per Opus Research). The conventional wisdom, which includes me here, holds that Google […]
Notwithstanding Microsoft’s own existing speech assets, the Tellme acquisition appears to be complementary and strategic for Microsoft across the board. There were the four principal areas, identified in the release, that would be pursued or enhanced by the acquisition: unified communications, speech platform, software plus services and mobile services and search. Indeed, Microsoft wants to […]
Here’s the press release confirming the acquisition we reported on yesterday.
As previously rumored, Microsoft is apparently in talks to buy Tellme Networks, the voice services and automated directory assistance (DA) provider. TellMe has an enterprise business, which would be of value to Microsoft. But such an acquisition would immediately make Microsoft a potentially major player in the emerging ad-supported directory assistance (DA) market and speech-enabled […]
Millions of Videos, and Now a Way to Search Inside Them from the New York Times is a big giant love story to video search firm Blinkx, suggesting that the idea of finding video content will take a leap through new idea of speech recognition. In reality, it’s not a new idea. It’s been in […]