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Voice technology

One of the common barriers to Internet usage has been the keyboard. Only a few amongst us have really mastered the methods of producing 100 words per minute on a keyboard. Just to prove my point I decided that I would write this article on word dictation software package called Dragon Naturally Speaking. Man I'm brave...or braid as the first draft said. The software still needs a nudge!!

With voice-based solutions gaining favor on the Internet via reputable providers such as Skype and Cisco services for voice over Internet protocol a precedent has been set a web users will more and more count on voice-based solutions.

It only stands to reason as this is the dominant way that we interact with each other. Humans preference to hear a voice and see a face. This is evident in the massive rise in popularity in Google videos and you Tube, and social networking like Facebook and MySpace.

In the next 3 to 5 years we will see the emergence of quality voice recognition software that will transform the way people interact with their computers and especially the way they browse and search the Internet. This will be a massive potential market where the most inattentive solutions will win out, and we will see big players in the market disappear as other companies take advantage. These changes will be as big as when Altavista ultimately lost to Google in the battle of the search engines. Although Google work hard to maintain their market position other companies could come and sweep the board with new solutions that take advantage of for voice integration into the user experience.

When you bring a voice into the equation the way that we search currently in our information on the Internet is via very specific keywords. Usually in a Google search there are no more than seven keywords. This limited amount of information provides the search engine with comparatively little to go on, although the way that you are geographically located plus your isp provider is also taken into consideration. Emergence of voice will change all this, people can talk far faster than they can type so searches will become much more specifically targeted in a way that a future search engine will operate will be considerably different to the current model of operation.

Ideasplantation.co.uk dedicate an amount of research time to keeping up with what we think will be one of the biggest shakeups in search engines and content in the next decade. If we are wrong then we wasted a lot of time!!! How many times in life have you talked to your computer because it behaved badly!! The frustration we all feel at some points during our interaction with computers nearly always comes out in words, and sometimes actions :-) Increasing the amount of keywords available to the search engine for any search, will only be based around how articulate the person is providing information to the computer.

Therefore keyword searches above 40 words will be common as people narrow down the search articles on material that they are looking for with Internet. Certainly this initial stage I believe that the communication will be one-way on the computer won't talk back to you. Damn that would be good... As you can imagine this is a very difficult task as people's local accents and geographical location of the mean that computer struggled to identify the exact phrase, and that this current point have to be "trained" -- which means hours of teaching your computer what you sound like saying many different types of words and this is an off putting factor.

The fact is though the technology is becoming much more advanced and as soon as real commercial applications are available for it the community of voice recognition will get its shining light. Current experts in sort search engine optimisation will have their work cut out for them. In this world content will be king in the amount of content on websites of good quality, would increase which can only be a good thing. The larger in article provide more possibilities keyword linking t for referencing those keywords to make a much more narrow, focused search for information on the Internet.

Of course this may never come to pass in this article may fall into the annals of history as a "tomorrow's world quote" scenario where we laugh at presenters from 30 years ago who predicted we would all be owning flying cars and have her own personal robots by now. Where is my robot! My robot is nowhere and nor is my hovering car, or my teleportation device. But unlike all these other scenarios are far-fetched devices that never really came to fruition, voice is already in use every day by us. Voice makes the world go around and will continue, very long time in the future and this inherent attraction of having the ability to speak to your computer and TELL it what you're looking for, will become the most invaluable service to the Internet.

Although the software is not by any means full proof it does provide you an opportunity to have your expressed words typed out in front of you on a screen. The satisfaction you get when you actually make the software work is immense. The frustration and when it does not recognise basic words can literally lead to taking off the headset and doing something else for a whole day just to get over the experience. I do follow and take notes on new developments in voice software, but there are no big signs of this revolution quite yet. The power of computing increasing according to Moore's Law we should all be able to have a supercomputer woven into our space suits in a very short amount of time! In all seriousness the increasing computing power that is available to the average person will enable computers to be able to listen in and understand the conversation in a very short amount of time. Take the example of where you would search from Plummer.

In Google you might type the words: Plummer, London West Ham cheap

in Google voice you might hypothetically say: -- I'm searching for a plumber in the local area to install the shower/give me a list of five plumbers

also in Google voice you could easily add: -- searching for a plumber in the local area to install the shower ... give me any list of five plumbers and e-mail each of them my contact details and my search and ask for a quote

As you can see the difference in the amount of keywords that you would use its phenomenal, and the extra tasks your computer could perform on your behalf will make it an irresistible tool. If you take this example and apply to such industries as car insurance, research and many other industries it will completely revolutionized the way the business is currently down Internet.

Other scenarios where we see direct brain communication between computers and humans is so far-fetched the progress so slow that these technologies will only exist far in the future. But for voice the age is dawning on the Internet.

And think of the things it will bring, with new applications where you'll be to send an e-mail within one minute with half a page of content is on all the relevant questions without having to touch a single key on the keyboard. The barrier between a few who are masters of the keyboard and the many who are one finger slaves will be eliminated immediately. Techno-savvy colleagues who can put out a five page report in half a day which you will slave over three times longer annoy you. No more with voice...it makes all of us equal, maybe with the exception of speed readers.

With quad core processors capable of millions of calculations per second technology has caught up and now all that remains is for the software providers to play the final endgame of who will become the master provider of voice services.

I believe this will be one of the most interesting times with the information that has amassed over the last 20 years will finally be unleashed through focused searches. I passionately believe that this will be the future. I believe it will happen soon. And I for one will curate my research and study around the time when this emerging technology will dominate the Internet. Hedging my bets that the future I see will be the future I speak into existence.

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