Google Launches Voice Search – and Two Other Brand New Features

 

“Most awesomest Google search feature ever.”
If your vocalized search gets you the resulting links, it means you already have the answer. But chances are you don’t as it was only this past Tuesday that Google announced their voice-recognition technology for desktops. Add to that the two other snazzy features Google’s integrating into its search engine and you’ve got a three-pronged approach to bolstering what’s already the world’s most popular internet search tool.
The first of the features will enable users to search the web simply by speaking their requests. Called Voice Search, the speech-to-text application will be activated by clicking on a microphone icon located next to Google’s query box. Voice Search has already gone mobile as an App for Android phones, but Google wants to enable its users to search via speech recognition on their laptops and desktops as well. In addition to the convenience of not having to type, Voice Search will be a helping hand in those hard-to-spell searches. It’ll also be easier to, as Google puts it, enter “long queries, even really, really long queries, just by talking.” Initially, Voice Search will only be available on Chrome browsers, but they plan to make it compatible with other browsers in the future.
Not only is Voice Search already being used on Android phones to search, it’s also enabling voice command control of applications. In the time since Android adopted the App in 2009 Google has built a voice-activated search database of more than 230 billion words spoken by users. The database was used to hone Voice Search’s speech-recognition capabilities. Not only does the program learn how people pronounce words but it also learned what phrases people commonly used in their queries. For now Voice Search only understands English, but Google plans to eventually add more languages.
The video below includes a short demonstration.  If you don’t have Chrome, download it today and wait for the little microphone icon to appear next to the search window–you’ll need a mic too, of course.  But if fellow Hub writer Aaron’s experience with Google Translate is any indication, we may find ourselves wanting to kill the guy in the next cubicle over who keeps yelling at his computer, “Cirque Du Soleil tickets…Du Soleil…DU-SO-LEIL!”