Google branching out into iPhone voice search

If you still can't quite get your head (or rather hands) around the iPhone's onscreen keyboard, then the good news is you'll no longer need it to tap into Google's mega-brain. The search engine king will be launching a voice powered app for Apple's touchy feely handset, so you can just tell it what you're looking for.

Say it, don't spray it

In theory, that means you can just ask it a question - like 'How big is a badger in cubic centimetres' - and it'll come back with an answer once it's worked it out. The question is recorded as a digital file, before being sent onto Google for voice recognition. Once it's been deciphered, it's then passed through the search engine and the results sent back.

Over a fast network connection it'll apparently take just seconds for all this to happen and the results you get back may include items pertaining to your location - so if you're searching for a pub then the results could be skewed in favour of those nearest to you - which is handy.

'Scuse me while I kiss this guy

In order to deal with mis-interpretations, Google is planning to store and analyse the vast amount of information provided by people using the service to help improve its accuracy. While it may be pretty good at launch, it should be vastly improved in three to six months thanks to all that real world data Google will have amassed to chew on.

Availability

The voice search app will be free for all iPhone users and could be available as early as this week. Once all the creases have been ironed out, then Google will also be making versions for other phones too.

(via New York Times)