Gates Vows to take on Google

Forum Moderators: mack

Message Too Old, No Replies

Gates Vows to take on Google

search engines would be 10 times more sophisticated in the future

Buckley

3:01 am on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

[news.com.au...]

jmccormac

8:02 am on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

" BILL Gates has promised that search engines would be 10 times more sophisticated in the future and computers would be far better able to recognise the voice of their user."

So now the mystery of what Bill Gates is doing after leaving the helm of Microsoft is solved. He spends all day watching Star Trek re-runs. :)

Regards...jmcc

goodroi

1:14 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

Google has had voice searching in their labs for a while. The disabled have really enjoyed it and I've heard mostly good things about it. Google's voice searching is currently unavailable. Which would make me guess they are working on improving it.

I don't think this is too far in the future.

Marc_P

2:19 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

Honestly I can't find a really good reason why voice activated search would be important for anyone, now or in the future (except for disabled people I guess...)

Can anyone clue me in? :)

Chndru

2:22 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

>>voice activated search
Instead of typing long queries on WAP phones, you can just say it and browse through the SERPS.

Marc_P

2:38 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

I understand, but really... who cares? How does that make one's search engine stand out in the real business world? how many people use their wap phones to search anyway? I know it's supposed to be quite popular in Europe, but I have spent enough time there to see it's not that prevalent, certainly not more prevalent than PCs....

Unless I am completely clueless, WAP is still in its infancy, even though it has been years since it became a standard, it still has a tiny, minuscule user base... I don't think it will grow very significantly for a long, long time to come.

So now the mystery of what Bill Gates is doing after leaving the helm of Microsoft is solved. He spends all day watching Star Trek re-runs. :)

My thoughts exactly!

HyperGeek

2:41 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

I don't think they meant "voice" as in "speaking voice". I believe it was more related to the collective opinion of the consumer.

webhound

3:08 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

blah, blah, blah.

Just launch the dam thing already! I am tired of hearing how great their search engine will be. :-)

Lets go MS, lets give G a kick in the....

ILLstyle

3:23 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

I can type faster then I can talk or write... So I think I will still need a keyboard.

treeline

3:39 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

A large percentage of 'average' people (who many of you depend on to buy things) have never learned to type well. Using voice is a very exciting option to them, just it hasn't worked well enough yet.

But it (usually) works well in a few limited settings. Try calling directory assistance. Many times you won't ever talk to a human.

mil2k

3:44 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

Just launch the dam thing already! I am tired of hearing how great their search engine will be.

Ditto ;)

He says that they were into search before Google was formed. And I think the state of their search is still as it was 6 years ago :)

blaze

4:03 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

There is only one thing that search needs to do in order to improve - throw out the SERP bathwater without throwing out the babies.

All else is static and noise at this point.

nrandal3

6:10 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

I have had over 3000 hits from various msnbots, which are apparently prototypes, so it looks like Gates is getting the index crawled already

Anolonda

6:43 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

>>>Honestly I can't find a really good reason why voice activated search would be important for anyone<<<<

IMHO, The only people this will be good for is Search Engines who are looking for another reason to make it more expensive to list your site(s).

No doubt Google is already working on a AdVoice campaign which reads paid advertisments on your new "Gmail" account that no one really needs for any reason than the novelty of having one.

Sheesh!

KevinC

6:51 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

Maybe I'm weird but I would just feel ridiculous sitting alone talking to a machine.

Reflection

9:59 pm on Jun 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

Maybe I'm weird but I would just feel ridiculous sitting alone talking to a machine.

I was thinking the exact same thing. :)

"blue widgets...search...ok try that one..no thats not what I want, go back..."

Warren

2:10 am on Jun 30, 2004 (gmt 0)

Office XP launched a few years ago with the ability to do voice entry.

So the development of voice recognition technology won't be just rolled out on the Search side of the business - expect to see it rolled into a variety of knowledge worker (Office etc) products.

Microsoft have an extensive usability lab where they test various ideas to see how the "great unwashed" use their products. I am sure the search group is using a lot of the lab's time right about now!

Warren

moheybee

7:16 am on Jun 30, 2004 (gmt 0)

Microsoft Search...

Iczer

12:26 pm on Jun 30, 2004 (gmt 0)

I would find the ability to use speech search on a WAP phone useful. On my phone I can transfer my Outlook address book and then say "call 'so and so' on the cell, at home, at work, etc without training. I use this feature quite a bit. Being able to look up directions, phone numbers and integrating it with email and IM would be something I would use. I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking for email and memos and felt like an idiot talking to my computer at first but quickly found it much faster.