Google integrates Voice Recognition in Local Search

Google has integrated voice recognition (our earlier coverage) to local search service and has expanded to 4 cities – Delhi/Bangalore/Mumbai and Hyderabad.

The service (call 1-800-41-999-999) lets you search for local information as well as movie timings – and as of now, it is not in the best-of-it’s state (tried some well known restaurant names, but didn’t work).

“It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to serve you better. It is currently only available in English, Hindi and Telugu.”

Basically, voice recognition (see: Simmortel Voice, a startup in Voice Recognition space) is still being tested and if the engine fails to understand your query, your call will be diverted to Google’s call center.

As far as I know, askLaila too was testing voice recognition, but somehow never launched (you need a backup plan, a fallback optioni.e. call center – since speech recognition is still not an unsolved territory).

What’s your opinion? Check out the Local search stats for Indian Market.

Recent development in local search space:

• Yahoo India invested in CallEzee
• Helion Ventures Invested in Getit Yellow Pages
• Web18 to launch local search

Few Startups in Voice/Speech recognition space:

• Ubona [received Series A funding from Capital18, powers Tata Sky’s call center]
• mScriber [review]
• Simmortel Voice [review] (and players like LatticeBridge who use Nuance’s platform)