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Google Voice Search
| Google Voice Search's Beta logo | |
| Developer(s) | |
|---|---|
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Type | Search by voice on your mobile phone and desktop PC |
| Website | http://www.google.com/mobile/voice-search/ "inside" http://www.google.com/insidesearch/voicesearch.html |
Google Voice Search or Search by Voice is a Google product that allows users to use Google Search by speaking on a mobile phone or computer, i.e. have the device search for data upon entering information on what to search into the device by speaking.
Initially named as a distinct feature was Voice Action which allows one to give speech commands to an Android phone. Once only available for the U.S. English locale – commands were later recognizable and replied to in American, British, and Indian English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.[1]
In Android 4.1+ (Jelly Bean), it was merged with Google Now.
In August 2014, a new feature was added to Google Voice Search, allowing users to choose up to five languages and the app will automatically understand the spoken language.[2]
Contents
Google Voice Search on Google.com
On 14 June 2011, Google announced at its Inside Google Search event that it would start to roll out Voice Search on Google.com during the coming days.[3][4]
Google has supported it but only with the Google Chrome browser.
History
Google Voice Search was a tool from Google Labs that allowed someone to use their phone to make a Google query. After the user called (650) 623-6706, the number of Google Voice's search system, they would wait for the words Say your Search Keywords and then say the keywords. Next, they would either wait to have the page updated, or click on a link to bring up the search page the user requested. At the moment, both the demo of this service and the page have been shut down. Since the introduction of the service, products from Google, such as GOOG-411, Google Maps and Google Mobile App, have been developed to use speech recognition technology in various ways.
On the 30th of October 2012, Google released a new Google Search app for iOS, which featured an enhanced Google Voice Search function, similar to that of the Voice Search function found in Google's Android Jelly Bean and aimed to compete with Apple's own Siri voice assistant.[5] The new app has been compared favorably by reviewers to Siri and The Unofficial Apple Weblog's side-by-side comparison said that Google's Voice Search on iOS is "amazingly quick and relevant, and has more depth [than Siri]".[6]
Supported languages
The following languages and variants are partially supported in Google Voice Search:[7]
- Afrikaans since 2010[8]
- Basque since 2012[9]
- Bulgarian since 2012[9]
- Catalan since 2012[9]
- Arabic (7 dialects) since 2011[10]
- Czech since 2010[11]
- Danish since 2014[12]
- Dutch since 2010[13]
- English (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, US), some variants since 2008 launch
- Finnish since 2012[9]
- French since 2010[14]
- Galician since 2012[9]
- German since 2010[14]
- Greek since 2014
- Hebrew since 2011[10]
- Hungarian since 2012[9]
- Icelandic since 2012[9]
- Italian since 2010[14]
- Indonesian since 2011[13]
- Japanese since 2009[15]
- Korean since 2010[16]
- Latin
- Mandarin Chinese (Traditional Taiwan, Simplified China, Traditional Hong Kong) since 2009[17]
- Malaysian since 2011[13]
- Norwegian since 2012[9]
- Polish since 2010
- Pig Latin since 1 April 2011[18] but it was actually added and not just because of April Fools' Day, although it is not officially listed
- Portuguese (Brazilian; European since 2012[9])
- Romanian since 2012[9]
- Russian since 2010
- Serbian since 2012[9]
- Slovak since 2012[9]
- Spanish (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, US, Uruguay, Venezuela) since 2010[14] and Latin American Spanish since 2011[13]
- Swedish since 2012[9]
- Turkish since 2010
- Yue Chinese (Traditional Hong Kong) since 2010[19]
- Zulu since 2010[8]
Integration in other Google products
Google Maps with voice search
In the summer of 2008, Google added voice search to the BlackBerry Pearl version of Google Maps for mobile, allowing Pearl users to say their searches in addition to typing them. See http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/maps.html for more information.
Google Mobile App with voice search
The Google Mobile app for Blackberry and Nokia (Symbian) mobiles allows users to search Google by voice at the touch of a button by speaking their queries. See http://www.google.com/mobile/apple/app.html for more information. Google also introduced voice search to all "Google Experience" Android phones with the 1.1 platform update, which includes the functionality on board the built-in Google Search widget.
In November 2008, Google added voice search to Google Mobile App on iPhone. With a later update, Google announced Voice Search for iPod touch. It requires a third party microphone. On August 5, 2009, T-Mobile launched the MyTouch 3G with Google, which features one-touch Google Voice Search.
Google Voice Search in YouTube
Since March 2010, a beta-grade derivation of Google Voice Search is used on YouTube to provide optional automatic text caption annotations of videos in the case that annotations are not provided. This feature is geared to the hearing-impaired and, at present, is only available for use by English-speaking users.[20]
See also
References
- ^ "Introducing Voice Actions for Android in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain". Google Mobile Blog. 16 September 2011.
- ^ http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/15/google-voice-search-multi-language-default/
- ^ van Vliet, Wouter (Tue 14 June 2011) Blog on ilikealot.com about the announcement
- ^ Google (Tue 14 June 2011) Official announcement
- ^ "Google Search App for iOS Updated with new Voice Search function". Engadget. 30 October 2012.
- ^ "Siri vs Google Voice Search - May the Best Robot Helper Win". TUAW. 1 November 2012.
- ^ Google Voice Search Availability
- ^ a b "Voice Search in Underrepresented Languages". Google Research Blog. 9 November 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Google Blog (17 August 2012). "Voice Search arrives in 13 new languages".
- ^ a b "Voice Search arrives in the Middle East". Google Mobile Blog. 5 December 2011.
- ^ Google Mobile Blog (21 October 2010). "Voice Search in Russian, Polish, Czech and Turkish".
- ^ "Hvordan slår jeg dansk sprog til i Google Now (Google Nu)?". 2 October 2014.
- ^ a b c d Google Mobile Blog (30 March 2011). "Word of Mouth: Introducing Voice Search for Indonesian, Malaysian and Latin American Spanish".
- ^ a b c d Google Mobile Blog (9 June 2010). "Salut! Willkommen! Benvenuto! ¡Bienvenido! Google Search by Voice in French, German, Italian and Spanish".
- ^ "Teaching a Computer to Understand Japanese". Google Research Blog. 15 December 2009.
- ^ ""Annyeong Haseyo! "안녕하세요" to Google Search by Voice in Korean". Google Mobile Blog. 22 June 2010.
- ^ "Google Search by Voice Learns Mandarin Chinese". Google Research Blog. 2 November 2009.
- ^ "Ig-pay Atin-lay Oice-vay Earch-say". Google Research Blog. 1 April 2011.
- ^ "Google Launches Cantonese Voice Search in Hong Kong". Google Research Blog. 2 December 2010.
- ^ Warman, Matt (March 5, 2010). "YouTube adds video captions". London: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
http://www.techyhunt.com/2014/08/15/google-voice-search-now-available-in-hindi-language-on-android/