Adding, the internet search giant would continue to develop search based for computers connected to the web, but that mobile in Africa was the largest single access point for web users. He told News24.

"We'd like to encompass both, but speech is natural - it's a more natural modality and I find it useful."

The Voice Search is available in South African English, Afrikaans and Zulu, and there are plans to roll it out in all 11 South African official languages and on the average, one voice search is about 100Kb and uses an acoustic, pronunciation and language model to produce accurate results based on search queries.

Robert Hamilton, Goolge's product manager is on the view that as a result of Google Voice working largely on smart phones as opposed to feature phones, Google gambles that the Android market will soon overtake competitors Apple and BlackBerry to become the industry standard.

"Mobile search has increased by 170% (in SA) and 200 000 Android devices are activated per day (worldwide). Mobile is already here and it's already big."

Google said that the Voice Search service represented the company's continued push into Africa, and that monetisation was not the first consideration.
Strategy

"We don't focus on monetisation, but we know that as more people access the internet and make use of services, Google will benefit directly or indirectly. Not everybody knows how to type and voice is natural," said Nelson Mattos, Google's vice president of engineering.

"A study has shown that if you increase internet users by 1%, you increase exports by 4.3%. We have dozens of languages in Africa and if you want to be successful, you have to do a heck of a good job localising your product," he added.

Mattos said that Google had a strategy for dealing with the digital divide facing SA.

"In South Africa you see the digital divide quite severely. It's between two worlds; that's why companies like us should have a dual strategy to increase the number of internet users.

"That dual strategy has to do with population. You have about 10% who are online and internet savvy and the question is 'How do I bring in the 90%.' At some point South Africa will be like any other country in the world."


Teething problems

The Company admits there will be teething problems, and vows that it will get better as more development takes place. This caused some amusement at the conference directed mainly to developers and entrepreneurs.

"I speak into my Android phone. Normally it's pretty snappy," said Schalkwyk during the demonstration of the service as the connection took some time. "I'm now switching to my iPhone mostly because our products are available on iPhone as well," he quickly added, to much applause and laughter.

Google Voice was developed in collaboration with the Meraka Institute and Schalkwyk said the reduction in prices of smart phones made the purchase decision easier.

"Why buy a feature phone? Google's emphasis is on future development and it takes very little computational power of the phone."

"Voice Search (VS) for South Africa is available on Android and iPhone devices. You can also access VS on Blackberry and some Symbian devices, but this will access VS in American English on google.com," Google's Julie Taylor said.