http://www.google.com/insidesearch/voicesearch.html
Has anyone tried this yet?
I know smart phones have had it for a while.
If the pundits are right and average Joe
is primarily moving towards a "tablet" oriented future,
it could be significant. Perhaps not so much for public spaces though
(nobody wants to verbalize "hard core midget porn" while
sitting on the train).
Potentially it makes browsing that 6 foot screen in the
living room a lot easier too. All it needs is TV makers
to inbuild a microphone receiver in the remote control
device.
Could be the Killer App to finally get those late adopter
Oldies online? There are still plenty of people who find using
keyboards a chore.
"Hunt and peck" is not a fun game.
And if voice search does take off a bit, maybe one of the implications
for SEO and search marketing will be minor shift away from
those hard to pronounce search keywords.
Also, cunning linguists will know, there are differences between
written communication and spoken communication throughout English
e.g. nobody says BBQ (as in "bee-bee-kyu") but we often write it
that way. So again, keyword search implications.
There might also be keyword targeting implications
with Homonyms and Homophones.
{e.g. "rose" (flower) and "rose" (past tense of "rise")
or "fare" and "fair"}
I also notice it says:
"Please note Voice Search is available for
US English only."
which no doubt has search implications for speakers
more familiar with other versions of the Queen's tongue.
This could also reverse the trend against long tail search
terms that the Google search preview function started.
With voice search, people may be more inclined to use
longer search patterns again.
And looking into the future a little bit,
it makes a browser more accessible in those places
where your hands are full. Like the car dashboard for instance.
Could be a boom in "car commuter search".
Who knows.
Thoughts?
( I may try it out once or twice, but I wouldn't normlly use it as much as I would type & search )
