If you have an iPhone, you should go to the Apple App Store and download the new, free Google Mobile App that I posted about below.  It is awesome! 

Once you click on the application, you just hold the phone up to your ear and when the accelerometer in the phone detects that it’s at your ear, it makes a noise to let you know it’s ready – which is pretty much instantaneous – and you say whatever it is that you want to search for.  Then when you stop talking or remove the phone from your ear, it makes a different noise to let you know that it’s now searching, and then your search results pop up. 

I tried a bunch of different searches, ranging from simple things like “Vietnam” to what I imagined would be difficult things to understand like “Demopolis, Alabama.”  It nailed them all.  I’m not saying it’s going to be 100%, but it’s pretty damn impressive. 

I hope this means that Google is really making some progress on voice recognition, because I’ve thought for a long time that the lack of a viable voice recognition system is the main thing holding us back from huge developments in computing devices and interfaces.  If anyone can do it, Google probably can.  (Does that last sentence even make sense?  Is that like saying “I guarantee you that I can probably do it.”?)  Anyway, get the app.  It’s great!