Mountain View, California — Are you tired of typing? Cheers! You can now voice in your search query without touching that keyboard! According to tech-site Mashable, search engine behemoth Google is reportedly testing the waters of “voice-activated search” with select users, and may even integrate the feature into the Google.com search engine once the experiment is complete.
Helpful tipster, Ustream’s Matt Schlicht, one of the lucky few to have first spotted the feature earlier Monday afternoon and used the new feature, described the experience via Twitter.
The news follows reports that Google’s voice-search product has advanced to the point of recognizing Chinese and will even learn from the user’s speech patterns. Moreover, Voice search detects your computer’s microphone settings and can open up a “Speak Now” widget to detect your words and transcribe them into a search query.
As previously indicated, Google’s voice search capabilities is not available to everyone. However, just for the few chosen for the experiment, the screenshots below of the feature displays a search bar exhibiting a small microphone icon that instructs the user to “Speak Now,” widget planted next to the search query.
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Once the ‘Speak Now’ icon appears, users simply press the button, say the search query aloud, and watch the software transcribe the vocal words into the text field.
Moreover, Android phone owners are already familiar with Google Voice Search; it is available in the Google Search widget. Google Voice Search on Android even translates voice commands into actions. For instance, “Directions to Empire State Building New York” will get you instant driving directions to Manhattan’s famous landmark.
Google-Voice-Search-Results: This is the result as tested by Matt Schlicht. Notice the shade of purple that distinguishes a voice search.
Furthermore, Google’s Mobile Voice Search is available for handsets built on popular platform, such as Android, BlackBerry and iOS. Google’s latest web browser release, Chrome 11, features HTML voice input.
Later on Monday, Google confirmed that it is positively experimenting with a voice search feature, but gave no indication that it will be a permanent addition to the search engine. “Google is constantly experimenting with new features,” was the only thing a company spokesperson said.
Nevertheless, if Monday’s reports and Google’s confirmation are to the dot, then Google’s desktop search engine may soon sport this speak-and-search technology, too.