Yahoo! has teamed up with Vlingo (not to be confused with Vringo) to offer speech recognition in their mobile web search app. If you’re in the US on a Pearl, Curve, or 8800-series BlackBerry you can snag it here. It worked pretty well in my brief test, getting most of what I said right even when I sort of mumbled, although it seemed to have a little trouble with background noise. There are plans to make it work on more devices and in more countries too, so hopefully more people will be able to get their hands on it soon.
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Yahoo! oneSearch offers speech recognition
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Nuance has announced that their voice-based search and instant messaging service, Voice Control, will be extending language support for French Rogers customers. Rogers has been pretty good about language support in Canada, so it’s good to see they’re keeping up. Look out for the updated software in April, available on the 8310, 8110, 8800 and Windows Mobile devices.
Evidence gathered from Google’s mobile offerings indicates that mobile internet usage is on the rise in a big way, reports Electronista. Google has seen mobile internet use increase since they released mobile versions of some of their products, like Gmail, Maps, and Search. A Reuters analyst, however, pointed out that it might a sort of selection bias on the part of Google, with people simply using their products more often rather than the internet in general. Still, some evidence points in the other direction: Google receives 50 times more searches from iPhone users than any other phone. Who would have thought a decent browser might actually get used more often?
Hayden just updated us on the status of vTap, the video search and video player for mobile. It’s now optimized for BlackBerry OS 4.3, which included streaming video support, and stretches back to the 8700. The search is pretty cool, working a lot like Boopsie in that it offers results as you type. On top of YouTube searching, they’ve also got a Wikipedia search with the same instant-return feature. The usual disclaimer follows that you probably shouldn’t be trying this out unless you’ve got an unlimited data plan, or really deep pockets. While it doesn’t look like the video search is ready just yet (just Wikipedia), we’re sure it will soon be accessible at http://m.vtap.com from your mobile browser.
Boopsie announced last week the launch of version 2 of their mobile search engine which covers Wikipedia, sports, weather, Google services, Facebook buddies, and a whole bunch of other channels. The kicker is that it works by inputting just the first few letters of search terms, and returns results automatically as you type, almost like SureType. Say, for example, you’re looking for a recipie on Epicurious for cranberry relish, and you just can’t bring yourself to type all those letters. All you have to do on Boopsie is type “cr re” and search results will pop right up. Standard cellphone users will probably get more out of this, but less typing is more time saved, no matter what device you’re packing. The only downside to Boopsie is that there’s a constant data transfer as you type, so make sure you have an unlimited data plan. If you’re set with that, you can download the free app over the air at http://boopsie.com/.
Microsoft has announced the next step in their Live Search engine, including some BlackBerry software. It’s been in beta since March, so it looks like they’ll be extending the testing period despite release of other Live services, such as voice input for Windows Mobile devices. In any case, you can find more information here, or give it a shot by downloading from wls.live.com on your mobile browser.
Live Search designed for use with BlackBerry devices is in beta and will be available for download for free on Tuesday, Oct. 16. It is a new offering designed for use on BlackBerry OS 4.0.2 or later phones, and customers with GPS-enabled phones can use location awareness to enhance their searches.
If you’ve been to the mobile Google site recently, you’ll notice a few changes. Namely, you can now add extra content to your default Google page, such as news, weather, and plenty of website updates. This is reminiscent of their iGoogle service that has been around for awhile. The mobile search engine’s been a little more location-optimized, so Google remembers where your previous queries were directed and applies that to future searches. Pretty awesome, all around.
