Google Voice Local Search Launched - Pales In Comparison To Other Talking Search Engines
I'm preparing an article about "Vocal Search", a.k.a. talking search engines. Ironically just today we heard the news about Google's new Voice Local Search service - an experiment from the Google Labs. While Google's service competes with other 411 services in the US, notably Microsoft's Tellme Networks, in my research of alt search engines I've found a lot of interesting voice services out there.
Many of the other talking search engines have very innovative UIs. In fact, as usual I find the alt search engines to be superior to Google - but see for yourself... Please take a few minutes and "talk" to these search engines, then come back and vote for the one you think does the best job in the poll below.
Ms Dewey finding results for Web 3.0 (just for our editor...)
Poll
- Ms. Dewey (www.msdewey.com)
- Foxy Voxy (www.askvox.com)
- Abby (www.abbyme.com)
- Speeglebot (http://bot.speegle.co.uk)
- Tellme by Voice (http://beta.tellme.com/voice)
- Heather (http://www.talkingtoolbar.com)
(Free trial)
- Google Voice Local Search (http://labs.google.com/goog411/)
Screenshots
Abby
Foxy Voxy
Ms Dewey
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Ms. Dewey wins because her actress is on Twitter.
Are you joking? I don't see how these products are similar to Google's. And the Web UI does not matter for Google, since this service is done over a phone. In addition, none of the other services you mention are useful over a regular text search; but google's service is useful for a free 411 phone service.
For example, Ms. Dewey does not allow *voice queries*, it speaks to you, and it does not even speak the results. On the other hand, Google 411 is primarily for use on mobile phones, where you make *voice queries*, and get automated responses, plus you are freely connected to the business that is found. I'm guessing you were being sarcastic.
This post reminds me of Annanova :)
A weak link, but a link nonetheless: Promo the SE robot:
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/seo-gossip.html
Readers: Here is a real gem! Talk to ELIZA!
http://www.manifestation.com/neurotoys/eliza.php3
Sorry, folks, they just keep coming:
Talk to Oliver: http://www.oliverbot.com/
Have it your way: Male voice? Female?
Fast or slow talker? http://www.talkingonline.com
HAL and ELIZA's good friend Alan:
http://www.a-i.com/show_tree.asp?id=115
ALICE:
http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1
Ms. Dewey is more of a search assistant to create a unique and fun experience instead of trying to formally answer the search questions. This is rather a viral marketing site for live search. The more formal voice/speech search of Microsoft is from Tellme.
"Or" (in comment #2) is right: the better comparison is between the Google number and other Free 411 numbers. By that score, the Google number is pretty inferior to 1-800-Free411. Google has business listings, while we have business, residential, and gov't listings. Google has no operator support, while 1-800-Free411 has live operator support in case a voice search gets garbled.