Nuance has just announced Dragon Go! for the iPhone, a voice search service that does more than just hear you and populate with search results based strictly on what it hears, but it’s also contextual in that it understands what you’re asking and may offer relevant content, too. Nuance says that these results can come from any of its 180 partners, such as Yelp!, ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, YouTube and more.
Here are some examples of what you can say, and the possible results that turn up:
- Say “The best Mexican food near me,” and instantly be taken to the Yelp tab for local reviews, or flip over to the Phone tab to quickly call to find out about any specials on the menu that evening.
- Say “Reservations for two at Capital Grille in Boston,” to be taken directly to OpenTable to book a table for dinner, or scroll over to the Maps tab to find out how to get there from where you are now.
- Say “Cowboys & Aliens near me” to instantly buy tickets, read fan reviews and see trailers on Fandango, and then scroll over to Twitter to see what other people are saying about the movie.
- Say “Nikon cameras” and you can move to the Milo.com tab to see the best local prices from nearby brick-and-mortar stores, or opt to see the product in action through video demos on YouTube.
- Say “Concert dates for Kings of Leon,” and be taken to the LiveNation tab to lock in tickets, flip to the media tab to listen to Kings of Leon on Pandora Radio or Last.fm, or download the album “Come Around Sundown.”
- Say “Baseball fantasy stats” and instantly see the latest player stats on ESPN.com.
- Say “Weather in Albuquerque, New Mexico” and get up-to-the-minute weather updates from AccuWeather.
Off the top of my head, I can’t really think of a voice-search tool for the iPhone or on iOS that does much better than what Nuance describes. If you hate typing on a physical keyboard, or the idea of dictating your search inquiries is appealing to you, you might want to give Dragon Go! a shot. It’s free in the iTunes App Store, and it’s also free to use. That’s not too shabby a price for something that sounds like a pretty full-featured service.
[Via: Nuance]