Google's Voice-Enabled Search for iPhone Now Available

[kas23]

This is a pretty cool app, but people have to realize that the iPhone is a gadget. It has a high novelty factor. Yes, it probably would be more practical to type your search in, but the iPhone is not always about what is practical. A lot of people on here use the car analogy. The iPhone is like a Ferrari. It looks beautiful and has a lot of wow factor. But if you are looking for 100% practicality, your probably best off with a Honda Accord.

On a different note, after playing around with this for about an hour, my iPhone became very sick. I could even get through a song on iTunes without it crashing. And Safari was entirely unusable. Even the home screen was crashing. It's seems better now, but I think I know why this was happening. Google was opening a new Safari window for each search. So, my phone was basically trying to function with 6-7 Safari windows open. And when Safari is closed, it really isn't closed. My phone has been acting a lot better since I re-opened Safari and closed all the windows.

 

[OrangeCuse44]

Why would this bring up a Safari search when I ask to find the nearest Starbucks instead of Maps? Makes no sense.

 

[macbookairapple]

So this is the app people couldn't get through 2 days without having?

 

[Loopy65]

I can't get it to bring back a correct search result even speaking in my best Queens English.

Am sure it's great if you are North American but I hope they do some work on recognising the rest of the English speaking world

Rather irritatingly it does 'warn' on the settings screen that it works best with North American English .. I played around with it and couldn't get it to understand even the most basic words and I don't have a particularly strong accent it's just 'UK' lol ..

Will be a great App if they can ever do a version for UK english .. not sure what the chances of that are!

Loopy

 

[markm49uk]

Try this for 5 minutes:

"The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."

Then retry a search.

Just tried 'Hull City football' and got 'Hope Haiti'

I give up.

 

[morespce54]

...and 6 is "sex" for some fked up reason
every thing else works perfectly....

Well, that's good to know... I guess...

 

[imacdaddy]

iPhone Contacts

I guess the voice search is only for web searches while to search your contacts is through typing?

 

[grs]

I tried, among many others, a search for "de Havilland Dash 8," which Google Mobile got right on the second try. That seems like a pretty good test of its voice recognition to me. Every time a search yielded the wrong results, it worked on the second try if I enunciated a little more slowly and clearly.

I can't really fault it for not recognizing the many variations of British English. I have a hard time understanding Brits myself sometimes. As for Australian English, bear in mind that when an Aussie says "bison," he's talking about where you wash your hands. You can't expect voice recognition software to recognize your speech if you use the wrong vowels.

GRS

 

[iSimx]

installed it, I've tried so many times and it still doesn't understand my voice lol....

 

[megfilmworks]

I love this app... When you are walking to a meeting, it's a hassle to stop and type out a search or map fix.... It has been very fast on wifi and 3g.
2 tips; talk normally (don't shout) and separate your words.

 

[TwiceNightly]

A big factor in it recognising my strong London accent was holding the phone to my ear.

I wasn't doing this at first and it was hopeless, when I started putting it to my ear (it does a little beep when you do so you know when to start) it gets it right a fair amount of the time.

 

[jayducharme]

Freakin' amazing! I've stumped the app a few times, but I'm really impressed with its accuracy. The simpler the phrase, the more accurate the result. ("Flower pictures" instead of "pictures of flowers.") And speaking slowly and clearly doesn't hurt. I also found it seems to work better if I don't pull the phone away until I hear the beep indicating my voice was registered.

I spoke the name of my college (not an easy one to decipher) and it immediately found it and pulled up a Google map. Their recognition technology really impresses me.

That said, I'm not sure how often I'd use it (outside of impressing non-iPhone users). Typing really isn't that much effort for me. One thing I was concerned about was that since Google Mobile has to open Safari separately, some of Google's functionality would be reduced, namely the ability to return to the search page quickly and explore other search results. But I was surprised to discover that the app loads the search results into Safari, and then opens the result you've clicked on in a separate window. So from within Safari you can return to the results page without having to re-open Google Mobile. But as someone else pointed out, you can end up with a lot of Safari windows open unless you keep closing them.

Overall though, this app is a pretty incredible achievement.

 

[markm49uk]

A big factor in it recognising my strong London accent was holding the phone to my ear.

I wasn't doing this at first and it was hopeless, when I started putting it to my ear (it does a little beep when you do so you know when to start) it gets it right a fair amount of the time.

Must just be my Yorkshire accent then as I cannot get one single result correct whether it's to my ear or not.

Ah well.

 

[Tampa Tom]

Useful & Quick

I always seem to fat finger my typing. This is a queick and fiarly accurate way to conduct searches. I used it many time this morning and feel it has increased the usability factor of my iPhone by at least 25%. Great app. Now whn I want Jenna Jamison pictures I can do it one-handed.

 

[Tampa Tom]

I always seem to fat finger my typing. This is a queick and fiarly accurate way to conduct searches. I used it many time this morning and feel it has increased the usability factor of my iPhone by at least 25%. Great app. Now whn I want Jenna Jamison pictures I can do it one-handed.

See...I fat finger on a regular keyboard.

 

[SoGood]

Buggy

Still a little buggy as it crashed out twice when trying out the various features on the new version.

 

[IrI]

Crashes EVERY time I enable Voice Search on my 1st Gen iPhone. Poor.

 

[tiiim]

It's not showing for me here in the UK. New features listed for the Google Mobile App on the UK store are "Now with My Location"

Same here, when you install no voice search option? Im guessing the UK version has no voice search yet.. shame.

 

[jhartung]

I spoke the name of my college (not an easy one to decipher) and it immediately found it and pulled up a Google map.

Did a map really just pull up? Or did you have to click on the Map in the pull-down (with the little magnifying glass) and then click search nearby? Cuz that's how it works for me, and that's too many steps. It should have a setting where it just automatically goes to a map, as that's the main reason I'd want to use this

 

[halhiker]

Does NOT work well for me.

I thought this would be cool but it's not. Taking my kid to school today I tried to call up the name of his school "Gerald Ford Elementary School" and not one time did I get the right hit. Sometimes it came up 404 school, others coral ridge school.

It asked to used location services so I thought it might pull up something local but no luck.

I asked where is walmart and it pulled up the general walmart page. No help there.

If they can get it to work with maps it may be of some use but I don't plan on websurfing while driving and anytime I want to look something up I can type it in more accurately.

But it's Google so I guess I should expect to be in perpetual beta.

 

[fabsgwu]

Crashes EVERY time I enable Voice Search on my 1st Gen iPhone. Poor.

I suggest deleting and re-downloading (through iTunes), then sync. Clears up most issues, I have a 2.5G iPhone, and have no problems with the Google voice app (hint: It's probably you)

 

[TIMT57]

I checked my update this morning and the Google update was there downloaded it is awesome spoke the name of where I live brought uo a map I tapped the map it asked if I wanted google map tapped yes brought up the map

 

[cenetti]

I think the best part of this app is the "bidi bada budu biliili buluuubabbaba bibibibiii" voice while it's working.....it's funny

 

[boss1]

Now all Google needs to do is create a medium size database of Sound Files that automatically play on your iPhone after you do a voice search.


You pick up the phone and ask for the "current weather in <location>"
Google returns and audio file that says "fifty three degrees, party cloudy"


other uses will emerge... weather is just an example.

 

[Plasmali]

Google, make the voice input work with ipod touch g2!

It would be nice to see the voice input work with the new ipod touch, as it has a mic in, through compatible headphones.