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Google Voice Search Works Better For American Accents

1:31 am, November 19th, 2008, Giles Turnbull

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When you switch on Voice Search in Google’s Mobile App for iPhone, you see a little bit of warning text underneath which reads:

“Voice Search only works in English, and works best for North American English accents.”

Tish and piffle, I thought to myself when I read that. I’m sure it’ll understand my humdrum Estuary English accent perfectly well.

But you know what? The warning was put there for a reason. Because so far, every search I’ve done has failed when I use my normal voice, and worked when I put on my appalling attempt at an American accent.

So thank you Google for giving us voice search, which is officially the New Best Thing Ever (better than the last Best Thing Ever, at any rate). But curse you, Google, for making me sound like a complete idiot every time I want to do a voice search for something in public.

Posted by Giles Turnbull in Humor, News, Opinions, Software, iPhone | Comment on this article

About the author

gilest

Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He is a columnist for PA, and has written for the BBC, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, MacUser, Macworld, and The Morning News. He has a blog you can ignore and a Twitter account you needn't follow.

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6 comments

    are you saying that a person with a “North American English accent” sounds “Like a complete idiot” ?

    aw, on November 19th, 2008 at 2:18 am

    This is a great application, however, the contact search does not work. Even though the search contacts feature is turned on in settings, it never searches contacts.

    The other Google searches, including calculations, definiitions, conversions, etc. work great.

    I have included a list of what works and what doesn’t in a new post at

    http://johnkendrickonline.com John

    John B. Kendrick, on November 19th, 2008 at 2:45 am

    aw: NO!

    I’m saying that ***my appalling attempt*** at a “North American English accent” ***makes me*** sounds like a complete idiot.

    It’s supposed to be a joke :)

    Giles Turnbull, on November 19th, 2008 at 6:43 am

    @ Giles Turnbull
    Ohhhhhhhh okay. I see now.

    aw, on November 19th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    Voice doesn’t work at all my iphone and constantly crashes. Not impressed.

    Jeff, on November 19th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    Classic… Odeon Cinemas here in the UK have a voice recognition system when you ring them to get film times. I moved to the UK from California in 2000 and have always had to put on an equally appalling Dick Van Dyke British accent in order to get it to understand me.

    Zach, on November 20th, 2008 at 1:30 am