Official Google Blog: Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411

Google will shut down its speech reco application GOOG 411. I had written about this service before. I don't have a smartphone, and this was a handy service when you were away from your computer. Google rarely hesitates to pull the plug on a service that isn't meeting expectations, so I guess this is no exception. Thanks to Phillip Hunter for alerting me to this story.

Speech recognition for handhelds

When Google gets into something, it does it in a big way. I've blogged about the well done 800 GOOG 411 speech-driven search service before. It made me wonder what else Google was developing with speech.

Then I saw this article about speech recognition and GPS for handheld devices. The article rightly points out that manual input is difficult to design and implement on small handheld devices, and speech (once you get the recognition working correctly) is a natural candidate for input. Hey, there's no training involved - we already know how to talk into small devices, right?

The article states "Google research director, Peter Norvig, has indicated that Google is currently spending more on speech and translation than any other area." The article goes on to suggest that Google will produce a competitor to the iPhone that incorporates both speech and GPS. This makes sense. Google took a big step away from desktop-based search with GOOG 411. Enabling location-based search on an easy to use handset is a next, very large, logical step. I'm guessing that Google will partner with a company that produces handsets to implement their ideas. It will be interesting to see what they develop.

More GOOG 411 - call recordings

Here's an interesting item about 800 GOOG 411: Google is recording calls for the purpose of improving its application's performance. I've blogged about GOOG 411 before; the service is a simple way to find phone numbers of businesses in any area of the country.

There's nothing unique or objectionable about recording speech samples in order to improve your application performance. Nearly anyone who uses speech IVRs probably wishes they would work better than they do. The article that I linked to quotes Google's plain language privacy policy, stating that Google is recording calls, and-for good measure-collecting ANIs in order to "personalize" the caller's experience. The article goes on to state that the recordings are used for "phonemic analysis" and "voice prints," and conjures an "Orwellian" scenario out of this information.

Whoa. Let's take a breath here. Recordings of interactions between a caller and an IVR don't necessarily mean that they're being used for "phonemic analysis." I listen to recorded calls all the time as part of tuning exercises to improve an IVR application's performance, but there's no "phonemic analysis" involved. And as far as storing voice prints, for the amount of speech that GOOG 411 requires for a search, it would be a pretty ineffective way of collecting a voice print. Not to say that it couldn't be done, but it's not the way voice prints are usually collected.

There's no doubt about one thing: people get very concerned over voice prints and other types of biometrics. I've conducted research on consumers' perceptions of voice prints and what it takes to get people to trust the technology enough to use it. There is genuine mistrust of biometric technologies that companies who employ biometrics need to deal with.

However, I can't find any reference to voice prints in any of the information provided in this article. The author read "recordings" and thought "voice prints." If that's a typical response from a customer to a "calls recorded for quality" announcement, then we all need to do some serious customer education. If Google is, in fact, collecting voice prints, I'd sure like to know how they are doing it.

800 GOOG 411

I tried Google's speech application for finding business phone numbers. I successfully found a business in Boulder, CO, in my first attempt. I'd need to work with it more before I passed judgment on how functional it is. What I found remarkable is the presentation. Here's the initial greeting.

"Calls recorded for quality. GOOG 411 experimental. What city and state?"

It's quick and businesslike. No effort to be cute or fancy. Let me be the first to say (at least I'm think I'm the first) that Google has apparently tried to capture the visual presentation of its web page in an auditory presentation. It succeeds. Its web page is just a white page with a logo, an input box, two buttons, and a small number of links. If you were trying to translate that visual presentation into a VUI you couldn't do a better job than Google has.

By being simple and almost terse, Google created a unique, differentiated experience. If its speech browser's performance is as good as its web site, it will have a winner.