Google launches voice-search Mobile App for iPhone

By Leon Bailey on Tue 18 November 2008

Or rather, "Google launches boyz to men of Florissant". At least, that’s how the speech-recognition facility of the updated Google Mobile App translated our headline when we just uttered it into our iPhone.

Yep, four days later than expected, Google’s new voice-search tool has made its way onto the App Store. So why was it late? Well, plenty of others have been speculating over the weekend, with most pointing the finger at Apple and its mysterious application-approval process. Our favourite take on the affair was posted by Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch.

But forget the whys and wherefores of its delay – speaky search is here. Is it any good? Our received-pronunciation appraisal is after the cut.

Look, to be fair to Google, the voice search option in Mobile App for iPhone is turned off by default (at least when downloaded from the UK App Store). Moreover, it comes with a warning that the speech-recognition only works in English, and is most effective when spoken with a North American accent. Which isn’t us, obviously.

So how does it cope with the British tongue? Actually, the rather poor translation of our headline aside, our first impression is that it’s pretty good.

We’ve spent an hour or so throwing plenty of words and phrases at it and a lot of the time, its interpretation is bang on. Sadly, a lot of the time it’s also way off, which makes using the voice-search side of Google Mobile App for iPhone at best frustrating and at worst, basically pointless.

Still, we love the accelerometer-driven start- and stop-recording gestures – they work a treat.

[Google Mobile Blog]