Legal Research

Diagonally

Mrs. Weasley: Now don’t forget to speak very, very clearly.
Harry: Diagonally. [Harry vanishes]
Mrs. Weasley: What did he say dear?
Arthur Weasley: Diagonally.
Mrs. Weasley: I thought he did.
(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

I got an over-the-air software update for my T-Mobile G1 Android phone last night. This much-anticipated update contains, among other things, the Google voice search application that’s been available on iPhones since November. It’s nifty.

The following queries worked the first time:

• jamie moyer
• jenkins law library
• president of russia
• three mile island
• three mile island nuclear accident
• treaty of brest litovsk
• weather butte montana

[Note: I used the last 2 queries, which included ambiguous terms such as "brest" and "butte" to see if I would trigger, um, adult-type content. I'm happy to say I didn't. But I was curious. In a professional context, I mean. Really. Professionally.]

These didn’t work the first time. I had to repeat them slower in order for them to work the second time:

• windows haiku
• staples store locator
• jefferson ob/gyn

I never expected the query “dan giancaterino” to work. And the app didn’t dissapoint: it returned “dan johnson” and “game john kerry” the 2 times I tried it. [John Kerry? I never mentioned "waffles".]

Surprisingly, the app had trouble with “barack obama”. It retrieved “Erick, OK” (including a map) and “patrick obama” the first 2 times. I then held the phone directly in front of my face, like a microphone, and tried a third time. Success. After more tests, it seems as if this is the preferred orientation.

When I tried to get a phone number for someone, I included “phonebook” in my query: “phonebook marie young pennsylvania”. Didn’t work — it only searched for “phonebook”. But the search “marie young pennsylvania” gave me the White Pages info I wanted.

I’m not ready yet to say that voice search is a killer app for the G1, but it’s pretty darn close.

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on February 06, 2009 (boomark / email).