Finally, Google delivers the search we BlackBerry users expected

I still like to take my wife on dates. Call me old-fashioned, or just call me old. We sometimes only manage to get away on the spur-of-the-moment, and if we can get a table at one of our favorite places, we're lucky.

Anyway, in low-light situations, I can't exactly maintain whatever fleeting resemblance I may have had to a debonair man-on-the-town if I'm fidgeting with the BlackBerry's default browser trying to locate movie times. I could keep my cool if I could just say, "Movies," into the little speaker that comes as standard equipment with these new phones nowadays, and get a list.

So in advance of several reclaimed hours I have to look forward to, thank you so very much, Google. Now I have available on my BlackBerry 8830 (which was the coolest handset of its day, for about three weeks straight) an application that's the latest upgrade to the Google Mobile App (actually a front end for the BlackBerry browser) that gives me a "push-to-talk" way of submitting queries to Google.

Now, Google didn't really need to upgrade its query response capability; everybody knows that if you type in "Indianapolis movies," you're going to get a link to showtimes right up front. All it needed to do is create a one-button method for processing voice queries without voice training beforehand, so every user (or at least, for now, every English-speaking user) can be recognized immediately.

As it turns out, we're getting pretty close to one button. The Google Mobile App is still a separate application, which you still select via its icon, but that's not difficult. After that, all you need to do is hold down the call button (which on BlackBerrys is the green receiver-handle button on the left) and speak.

I tend to speak very distinctly, which can either be a help or a hindrance; sometimes when trying to make an impression on my wife, my voice can give me less of a Sean Connery aura and more of a Neil Connery ambiance. That's not a problem for Google, or for anyone else who might agree that if all else fails, a future still awaits me as the voice-over for talking elevators.

Still, "Indianapolis" is a difficult word that even Microsoft's experiments with voice recognition fail to parse all the time. In my tests with Google's voice search, the system did not fail once to parse "Indianapolis." In several cases where I even tried to sound more like Sean Connery, the system was still able to correctly parse phrases such as "Indianapolis Ambrosia," which lead me directly to the listing for one of our favorite patio restaurants.

Now, try saying "Broad Ripple restaurants" three times fast. Broad Ripple is the "happening" part of the northeast quadrant of town, where you'll find the best places to eat and meet people, usually wearing Butler Bulldogs gear. That's another phrase that Google had zero problems with.
It's those made up words that are troublesome.

"Betanews" never really came through for poor Google. At different points, I got "beta vu" (the feeling that you've read this article before), "raiders news," and "feta cheese." It's at this point where one wishes one had certain keywords that Google could recognize as commands; this way, I could spell something that Google would most likely mutate: for example, "N-A-T-E M-O-O-K." (I could list some of the permutations Google made of that one, but I'd rather keep my job here, thank you.)

Even if Google's voice-sensitive servers fumble a few words now and then, the failure rate would probably never consume as much time as trying to find where Yahoo, for instance, moved the ZIP code input line for its movie search this week. It is fair to say that I am appreciating the benefits that iPhone users and others are getting from realistic Web page rendering; and although it's several steps forward, Opera Mini isn't yet a viable substitute. But if I have an application available to me that nullifies this functionality difference for situations where I really need it nullified, then I'm happy. If I can push a button and get something that leads me pretty much, if not precisely, in the direction I want to be headed, then I can finally be pleased with having a useful locator device in my shirt pocket.

It's important to note that this is not Google Voice for BlackBerry. Google Voice is an experimental feature for users of the company's Grand Central service, which is in beta right now, and which provides features such as centralized voice mail. Google Voice Search is an extension of Google Mobile App version 3.3.38, and suddenly, it seems Microsoft's branding problem is coming around to bite Google at last.

Whether I end up eventually using Google's centralized voice mail service, and submit to the travails of my personal files stored in some Web cloud, is an entirely different matter. For me, one of the true reasons for actually owning a smartphone in the first place has at last presented itself. Google Mobile App is downloadable through your handset at m.google.com.