Users can place the phone to their ear and ask
sophisticated questions relating Google’s searching abilities, like
finding a restaurant, look up a contact from the iPhone’s address book,
or looking up the Seven Wonders of the World. The search results are
displayed in seconds, depending on the wireless networking, and can, at
times, include local information. The new app makes great use of the
iPhone’s many features.
Both Yahoo and Microsoft already offer voice services for cellphones, though none are as accurate as Google’s, despite the Google app’s tendency to return queries that appear as gibberish. The voice recognition machine will never be perfect, says Raj Reddy, an artificial intelligence researcher at Carnegie Mellon University who has done pioneering work in voice recognition, but this new technology will not only propel Google into better business, but will bring more possibilities to the iPhone, as well.
