Google Voice

Recently Google took GrandCentral, spiffed up the software and rebadged it as Google Voice. Among the new offerings is the ability to transcribe voicemail messages! That's right--your messages are converted to text and emailed and/or text messaged to you.

State of the Art - Cell Services Keep It Easy, and Free - NYTimes.com

But what if there were a way to add features without changing the phone itself?

There is. Several super-simple cellular services are so sweet and satisfying, you can’t believe they’re free. They work by recognizing your voice, so you don’t have to master anything new on the phone itself — all of the complexity is hidden from you.

Certain voice-driven freebies, in particular, have earned a permanent place on my phone’s speed-dial keys. All work alike: you dial an 800 number, speak your request and get the results in seconds, usually in the form of a text message on your phone.

(Yes, the sort of person who uses the phrase “by cracky” may be unfamiliar with the glories of text messaging, and may bristle at having to pay 10 cents a text message, or $5 a month for hundreds. But remember: the services described here don’t require you to master sending such messages — only receiving them, which requires no skill at all.)

800-GOOG-411.

Cellphone carriers have plenty to be ashamed of. Case in point: when you dial 411 to look up a phone number, you'll be billed $1.50 or $2.

If it's a business or store you're looking up, for heaven's sake, dial 800-GOOG-411 instead. It's a voice-activated, national phone directory run by Google. It's fast and efficient, and there are no ads or charges.

A typical transcript goes like this. "GOOG411. What city and state?"

You: "New York, New York."

Google: "New York, New York. What business name or category?"

You: "Empire State Building."

Google: "Empire State Building! Searching. Top listing: Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue. I'll connect you."

And your call is connected, just as though you'd dialed yourself. Or you can interrupt by saying "details" (meaning, "read me the phone number and address") or "text message" (meaning, "send that info to my cellphone, so I'll have it in writing").

For residential listings, you can dial 800-FREE411 (not a Google service), although you have to listen to a 20-second ad. And don't miss Google's free SMS service, which offers business phone numbers, weather, sports, flight info, and more (details at tinyurl.com/ymeupk). But neither of those services compares with the spectacular speed, convenience and reliability of GOOG411.

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Old News ;-)

Can we help with improving transcription text - Google Voice Help

I am familiar with the technology and it will improve over time as it is used more so you are helping without knowing it. Google is working on advanced speech recognition to compensate for accents and pronunciation variances. Learn more about it at the page below.

Many people I work with think that the Google411 project is being used to gather and analyze speech examples for use in their voice translation technology.

Here is some information on Google speech translation: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/10/machine-translation-and-speech.html

1. Google Voice Screwups

   May 23, 2010 ... See and submit your funniest Google Voice Transcription screwups!
   gvscrewups.blogspot.com/ - Cached - Similar

2. Our Favorite Google Voice Screwups

   Nov 4, 2009 ... Voicemail-to-text technology has a long way to go.
   www.businessinsider.com/our-favorite-google-voice-screwups-2009-11 - Cached - Similar

3. Experiment: Fun screw-ups with Google translate | Box Of Insight

   Feb 10, 2011 ... 1 Response " to "Experiment: Fun screw-ups with Google translate". Aiko Szoka says: February 11, 2011 at 5:10 pm ...
   www.boxofinsight.com/.../experiment-fun-screw-ups-with-google-translate/ - Cached

4. Google Voice Screwups

   Nov 4, 2009 ... GV Screwups is a blog showcasing accidental mis-transcriptions of the Google Voice service, which turns voicemail into text. ...
   blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-11-04-n64.html - Cached - Similar

5. Funny Google Search Mess-Ups " Gurubootcamp: Google

   May 10, 2011 ... Ha look at these google search corrections, very humiliating in some cases. Tags : googel messups messup search screw up screwup creed.
   gurubootcamp.net/google/funny-google-search-mess-ups - Cached

6. Google Screw Ups | www.samanthabeary.com

   May 2, 2011 ... Category Archives: Google Screw Ups. images that Google THINKS I want when I type in a search term… ← Older posts ...
   samanthabeary.com/category/googleimages - Cached

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Last modified: March 29, 2020