Using hands and fingers to carry out various tasks is becoming more and more tiresome for many consumers around the world. As technology has advanced, so have expectations and desires for further levels of convenience, or slothfulness as some might call it.
It’s a phenomenon that is already visible in everyday life for many of us. Cell phones now come standard with speed and voice dial capabilities, both of which decrease the amount of energy that might otherwise be exerted by our weary fingers. Customer service call centers allow callers to say product identification numbers instead of punching them in with their phone’s alphanumeric pad. More and more higher-end cars are implementing voice command capabilities, allowing drivers to look for directions and even control features of the car with the sound of their voice. Chances are these voice-related innovations will only gain popularity in the near future and beyond.
This presents a huge and very open opportunity for Google, who has already sent clear indications that this is an area that they will invest in and explore. In fact, they already have.
In Thomas L. Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted on page 153 as saying:
“We do discriminate only to the degree that if you can’t use a computer or don’t have access to one, you can’t use Google, but other than that if you can type you can use Google…there will be no discrimination in accessing knowledge….Let’s imagine a group with a Google iPod one day and you tell it to search by voice – that would take care of the people who can’t use a computer – and then [Google access] just becomes about the rate at which we can get cheap devices into people’s hands.”
On May 17, 2006, Google Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, gave a talk at Stanford and said this:
“I think that voice technology is going to become advanced along in five years where you will be able to talk to search engines… Computers are going to show up in strange and useful places. BMW come September will have computers on board every single one of its cars… imagine driving on a road and saying ‘I need to find the nearest fast food restaurant.’ There’s a lot of interesting things that can happen.”
Are those two hints enough? Well then, add a patent for “A system [that] provides search results from a voice search query” filed on February 7, 2001, and a barebones (and currently unavailable) archetype of Google Voice Search located at http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html that has been up since 2002 and it seems certain that Google has been eyeing the potential of voice recognition for quite some time now.
In regards to Schmidt’s quote above, it appears that pursuing initiatives in voice recognition would be especially powerful in underdeveloped countries where computers and Internet connections are not readily available. Mobile phones and cars equipped with voice recognition capabilities would skirt this issue and would present a connection with these areas of the world that could be remarkable in its effects. Not only are the benefits for Google obvious (as these disconnected nations are not sparse), but the advantages that could be reaped by the countries themselves would be enormous.
Will Google limit the tools used in voice searches to just cell phones and automobiles? In all likelihood, probably not. It is not all that hard to imagine affordable iPod-like devices backed by Google that center around voice searches with peripheral amenities, which would appeal not only to developing countries abroad, but also to teens and tech-savvy adults here. Instead of logging onto their computers, clicking to open up a browser, and typing a query to find results, consumers would just have to voice their question and see the results.
This would save users a few clicks and some keystrokes. And who wouldn’t like that?
Sources:
http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/searchinsider/wpn-49
-20060615GoogleTalkingVoiceRecognition.html
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=
HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=
G&l=50&s1=7,027,987.PN.&OS=PN/7,027,987&RS=PN/7,027,987
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