VIRAL JAPAN

Fri Nov 14, 2008 3:27PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google is reportedly weighing into the Internet voice search arena with a free application that lets iPhone users surf online by speaking queries.

An article published in The New York Times said the software could be available at iTunes online store as early as Friday.

Google will be stepping into an arena with rivals Microsoft and Yahoo, which already let people using "smart" phones scour the Web with spoken queries.

The Internet powerhouse already offers a toll-free GOOG411 telephone service in the United States that people can call and speak to a computer system that fetches contact information they seek.

The iPhone application will be Google's first foray into voice-based Internet search.

Google in 2006 received a US patent for a system that "provides search results from a voice search query."

"Current speech recognition technology has high word error rates for large vocabulary sizes," Google wrote in the patent application.

Yahoo crafted voice recognition into its oneSearch mobile Internet service this year to let users perform "wide open" searches by speaking questions. Microsoft added voice to its Live Search mobile service last year.

"Voice search can be particularly effective on connected devices, since it can take advantage of network-based speech technology and data resources," organizers of a Voice Search Conference in California say on their website.

"One can simply say what one wants, much like talking to a personal assistant, and have any ambiguity resolved by a quick dialogue or a display of alternative results."

Google is leaving a door open to crafting voice search into Internet-linked phones built with an open-source Android software platform that the California-based firm has championed.

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