Google Maps 4.1 Adds Voice Search

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/' target='_blank'>http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"We understand that typing on phones isn't as easy or fast as talking into them. As a result, we're big fans of letting you search in Google Maps for mobile in the most natural way possible -- with your voice! Not wanting the BlackBerry and Android folks to have all the fun, today we're happy to announce Search by voice in Google Maps 4.1 on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 phones. Search by voice lets you easily search for anything by simply speaking your search terms instead of typing them. Just open Google Maps, press your phone's "call" button, and clearly speak your search term like "Park Plaza.""</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1271956797.usr2.jpg" /></p><p>Google has added voice search to its latest version of Google Maps for Windows Mobile, so instead of typing, you can now speak your places, addresses, businesses, and types of businesses directly to the phone. On top of that, the app features a redesigned settings page where you can configure your voice language (multiple English accents and Mandarin are supported). As always, this is a free update, so head over to the <a href="http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/" target="_blank">Google Maps for mobile web page</a> and start downloading.</p>

[Inventor]

When Version 4.0 came out I tried it for the 'buzz' layer.

Buzz is a really cool tool and lots of people in the area/city including people from Google in Waterloo that use it. You can share text/pictures and in the future videos etc. in the future via GPS location.

The only problem with the Buzz layer is that they added twitter feeds about 3 days ago to the buzz list, and some people send 20-30-100 tweets per day and it hides the buzzes that are actually useful.

As for voice search (just installed) they use the 'phone button' to start the voice box, Im having problems with the iPAQ Data Messenger since this also starts the phone - and I would guess other device might have a problem using this key.

Use another key for voice!!

[Sven Johannsen]

As for voice search (just installed) they use the 'phone button' to start the voice box, Im having problems with the iPAQ Data Messenger since this also starts the phone - and I would guess other device might have a problem using this key.

Use another key for voice!! Just getting ready to install it. Long press on phone kicks off Voice Command for me, so that would be a conflict. Guess I'll see.

Edit: Seems to work OK on my Pure. If Google Maps is running a single press on the phone button calls up their speech recognition. If it is not running the long press for Voice Command still works. That's fine with me.

[Inventor]

Edit: Seems to work OK on my Pure. If Google Maps is running a single press on the phone button calls up their speech recognition. If it is not running the long press for Voice Command still works. That's fine with me.

Well a single press on phone starts the voice box on the iPAQ ok, but cant figure out how to stop it. A second press doesn’t stop it.

NOTE: I tried to let it just timeout with the voice searches and its been showing me very rude/dirty suggestions.

Use another button!

[jgjackson]

Yeah, they need to add an option to use another key. My PDA doesn't have a phone key, so I can't use the voice search at all on it. (Yes some of use still use PDAs, although I guess these days they're called tablets, iPods, or iPads).

[Richard76]

It seems to work fine on my Fuze and like Sven, it doesn't mess up my "long press" Voice Command with the Talk key. Certainly a lot more user friendly now but I will have to play around with it some more yet.