Just a week after Microsoft announced it was incorporating voice-based Bing into the Xbox 360, Google is ratcheting up its own applications with plans to add voice search to the desktop. The company already offers voice search on its mobile app, and Product Manager Mike Cohen told his audience at Inside Search that the system now supports 27 languages and handles the equivalent of two years of non-stop speech each day. Google says one of its goals is to train people to  voice search regularly. So, it's trying to demonstrate they'll never have to wonder whether the capability will be available. The company wants to put it in more places so users will come to assume they can voice search in any environment they want. In terms of real-world usefulness, Google says that voice search makes it easier to hunt for terms you're not sure how to spell, to enter terms that are so long it's simpler to say them than type them, and to conduct searches when you can't get your hands on the computer, like when you're cooking, for example. If you want to see Google Voice in action, here's a demo video from Mashable.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ll3IHATcWo&w=560&h=349]

Photo: Wikimedia through Creative Commons