Google Voice Search for iPhone Not Ready

Image by via CrunchBase

I read a few mainstream tech stories about the new Google mobile search app that takes voice-to-text queries and returns results to iPhone users. While the stories were generally reprints of a Google press release, a couple of blogs spoke highly of it and called it a new “must have”. So I downloaded it.

Unfortunately, the application was a disappointment. I tried 3 times to get it to recognize ooVoo, and each time it was wrong, returning results for “Yahoo” then “Google”.

Worse, it seemed to have a problem with the screen sensor that turns off the screen when the head or face is close. Every time I put it close to my ear to wait for the tone indicating time to speak, it would go into search mode before I had an opportunity to speak my search term.

It’s a nice thought, bringing the same expensive voice-activated technology that runs voicemail menus and corporate support menus, but they haven’t quite perfected it yet. And this is unfortunately true of so many of Google’s services. Just this month they added skinning to their email application, years after Yahoo and other more advanced SaaS vendors had installed it. They still don’t have an effective foldering option.

Their search services, without a doubt, are standard. And the array of online services they present are attractive for their open embrace of standards. I’m just leery of investing any more time in interfaces that are less than fully baked.

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