iPhoneIndiaBlog.com

15 Nov

Voice-Recognition Search from Google coming to iPhone

Posted on 2008 under Apple, iPhone Apps |

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Imagine this - Start your iPhone, Hit Google app and then say “Which is the best Chinese Restaurant in Bangalore”. Google would then immediately fetch list of top rate Chinese Restaurants around your current geo-location. Google is going to launch this free app within next day or two. This is a part of Google’s artificial intelligence initiative. Google is going to bring Voice-Recognition search exclusively for iPhones. AppleInsider has some more insights:

Google as early as today is expected to introduce a free application for the iPhone that lets you search for information, directions, or virtually anything else by speaking into the handset, eliminating need for the keyboard entirely.
“The service can be used to get restaurant recommendations and driving directions, look up contacts in the iPhone’s address book or just settle arguments in bars,” wrote the New York Times’ John Markoff, who profiled Google’s broad speech-recognition efforts while breaking word of the new offering.

Though the driving direction will not happen in Indian cities, because Google still hasnt activated driving directions in map.app. Recommendations and other basic search will surely be there.

Some features of this app is well suited for US iPhone users:

The new app is said to be an extension of a much broader artificial intelligence initiative at Google that has seen the tech heavyweight hire many of the top speech recognition experts in the world. Another developmental service, GOOG-411, serves up business phone and address information.

NYTimes has exclusive coverage on this app:

Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available as soon as Friday through its iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” or “How tall is Mount Everest?” The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine.

[via - AppleInsider and NYTimes]

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