Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology, adept at understanding human speech, to the company’s search software for the Apple iPhone. Google is expected to introduce a free application as early as today and experts say it could almost eliminate the need for the keyboard entirely.
New York Times' John Markoff writes, “The service can be used to get restaurant recommendations and driving directions, look up contacts in the iPhone’s address book or just settle arguments in bars. The query “What is the best pizza restaurant in Noe Valley?” returns a list of three restaurants in that San Francisco neighborhood, each with starred reviews from Google users and links to click for phone numbers and directions.”
The query results will turn up in just seconds on a fast wireless network, and will take of advantage of features that let the iPhone determine its location. The voice recognition quality is supposed to be superb. Systems that can recognize any phrase said...