Google Releases Indonesian Voice Search

Located in Domain Bar & Grill, Senayan City, Google launched Google Voice Search that has been recognized Indonesian language. Currently, Google Voice Search can be enjoyed in the three major platforms, iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. However it did not rule out the application development of Voice Search for other platforms.

This application is bundled in the application of the Google Mobile App for iOS and BlackBerry, while you can download the Voice Search application directly for Android via the Android Market with a minimum version of OS 2.1. A brief explanation from your mobile about this product can be traced through the page http://m.google.co.id/voicesearch.

What is this Voice Search? The simple thing is you do not need to type to find a thing on the Internet. Simply press the Voice Search phone and talk through the microphone. The voice input will be processed by Google in its cloud computing, then if there is in the database, Google will display relevant search results. If there are some similar searches, Google will display all relevant and similar options to be selected by the user.

Like what was said by Derek Callow, Head of Marketing of Google Southeast Asia, in his press release, "Voice has always been the most natural manner when interacting with the phone - talking it faster and easier than typing on the touch screen or small-sized keyboard.

Any searches will be processed, including text search, image or video. For example, when Henky Prihatna, Indonesia Country Representative Google SEA, sing some lyrics from Indonesian song "potong bebek angsa", a Google search page will load one of the YouTube video of the song.

How good is this Indonesian Voice Search feature? According to Henky, the team of Google Voice Search has worked hard to accommodate all kinds of Indonesian uniqueness, including homonym, homophones, homographs, slang or accents from various tribes. The dialect of  Batak tribe is certainly different from Javanese and this should be accommodated as well. This Indonesian language data collected from 500 volunteer students who assisted in this process. Google Voice Search also use the noise-reduction to filter the data that are essential and need to be completely processed and what does not.

Of course nothing is perfect. You could be going to find some words that are not recognized by Voice Search. If you are slurred, difficult to pronounce the letter R can be harder to be recognized by the Voice Search algorithm for the Indonesian language. But this will be a contribution to the development of Voice Search in the future, because over time, these datas will be stored and processed further with Google's cloud computing technology.

The existence of this feature makes searching easier. When driving or in any conditions, you do not have to be troubled to make a searching, but I certainly do not recommend you be busy with a mobile phone while driving. To me, a milestone has been exceeded because the search process via Internet connection in the phone is as easy as when you want to make a call.

Translated by Nita Sellya