Nov 23, 2008

Talking to Google....

Now that we can conduct google searches by voice, it seems clear that we'll soon be able to access other google services by voice as well.

Need to update your calendar? Pick up your cell phone, access your google app or call an 800 number, and speak to add items to your google calander or have it read you your daily schedule.

Need to send that pdf report to your boss? Talk to gmail, have it grab the report from your google docs account, and then dictate a short message before having it send off the email.

Want to know what news is breaking in the technology sector? Talk to google reader and google news, and have them read you the day's headlines.

Want to see how your portfolio is doing, or see what NASDAQ is doing today? Talk to google finance. Want to find out where the nearest Sushi place is? Talk to google maps, and then have it guide you there.

None of these things on their own is truly earth shattering, indeed none of these things would be a huge leap beyond the existing voice search they've already implemented. But when you combine all these capabilities together an exciting picture begins to emerge. In essence, google will have become an extremely powerful software agent. A personal digital assistant that knows your schedule, knows your reading habits, knows your interests, etc. What was once a number of useful but distinct web based applications, will suddenly have become a free personal assistant residing in your cell phone.

And it doesn't stop there. We'll soon be talking to facebook and yahoo and amazon and others, and they'll all be talking to each other. Could this be what web 3.0 will look like?

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