San Francisco — Delivering on its promise to empower the world with better search functionality of information handy to mobile devices, Google today introduced the addition of a couple new features to its Google Mobile App, including its My Location application for BlackBerry handsets for voice control functions, enabling users to speak to the device when requesting information, similar to what it delivers for the iPhone and Android-based T-Mobile G1.
“If you are like us and dislike fiddling on that tiny keyboard, you will be glad to hear that Google Mobile Application on your BlackBerry will let you search with your voice and with My Location. Give it a try by visiting http://m.google.com on your BlackBerry,” wrote Luca Zanolin, Google Mobile App engineer, in a blog post.
The Google Mobile Application, which is available as a free download and allows you to conduct searches with the sound of your voice. The application also provides shortcut to several Google services such as Gmail, Maps, News and Reader. Below those shortcuts is the search bar. You can use either your voice to enter in a search query, or you can type the query in as normal.
To do so, users simply need to hold down the Talk button on your BlackBerry and then speak your search term into the phone. Britons will also be glad to hear that the app now supports British English accents.
Google said that the application will function normally for UK and US English, and would help to resolve common search errors like spelling mistakes, and other mistyped information.
For example, “While on your vacation you could have sworn your friend said to meet in [Lester Square]. Unfortunately [Lester Square] does not exist on the Tube map. With a quick voice search on Google Mobile App (just press and hold the green button) for [Lester Square] reveals the true spelling, which is [Leicester Square] and is actually only two stops away on the Piccadilly line. Problem solved,” explained Zanolin.
Now perhaps even more powerful feature than voice search, is Google’s the My Location elements of the application that eliminates the need to input specific address information such as a postcode, and brings up search results based on your location as determined by your BlackBerry’s GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular triangulation.
For example, with My Location functions enabled, you can perform a simple search for “pizza” into Google Mobile App, and the operation is performed with highly accurate results. The first result was the nearest pizza place (which happens to be around the corner from my home). The second result was the next-closest and so on.
Google sees a large number of uses for this new feature, such as to help resolve common spelling mistakes or simply to let users perform searches in situations where they cannot start typing — like when driving. Furthermore, Voice Search can be employed in tandem with My Location — the second new feature introduced today.
Google Mobile App is now available on all versions of BlackBerry running on O/S 4.1+ and with Search by Voice on O/S 4.2 and above. Only the Blackberry Storm is not currently supported.