While it is not quite as helpful as Apple’s Siri personal assistant, Google has a voice-activated feature in its software that lets you search the Web by speaking your search terms out loud. Google Voice Search is available in its mobile apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia S60v3 mobile phones. Depending on which version of the software is installed on the phone, Android users have their own options, including the Google Search widget, the Voice Actions app for Android or other apps from the Android Market.
Google has voice search built into its Chrome Web browser for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems. To use it, you need to have a working microphone attached to the computer. To start, just click the microphone icon in Chrome’s search box and speak your keywords aloud. Google has more on Chrome’s voice search here. In addition to cutting down on keystrokes, searching by voice also comes in handy when you are not sure how to spell the thing you seek.
