Google launches Voice based mobile service in India

Bangalore: Internet search giant Google has launched its voice-based search applications and map solutions for Blackberry users, which is built completely by Google's Indian team. The service will serve 400,000 Blackberry users in the country.

"Mobiles (more than 400 million) outnumber the personal computers (PCs - slightly over 30 million) concentration in India. A big part of the population accessing Internet going ahead would do so on a mobile handset and so we need to offer enriching experience to these users. This feature has been developed by the India team and takes into account the Indian accent. Currently the facility is available only to Blackberry cell phone users in India but we hope to extend this to other handsets by the end of the year," said Vinay Goel, Country Head, Products, Google India.

When a user registers with Google voice, he will get a unique "Google Voice number". This will connect user's all contacts (Office/home/mobile) to his Google number. He can also divert the callers to the phone based on his convenience.

When the other person will call the user, he will be connected to the Google Voice number. Based on the settings, the call will be diverted on the mobile. If the person cannot take the call, he can divert it to the Google Voice mail and from there it will be delivered on the mobile as a text message. In case of a number change; one just need to assign the new number to the Google Voice number which will remain unchanged like a Gmail id.

Yahoo had also launched a similar voice search facility in India. But Yahoo's voice search service allows mobile users to seek information on the Internet through a phone call. Google's voice-search service is free of cost at present.

Google also hopes to be a accelerator in the dialogue between device manufacturers and carriers to help the development of Android phones in India. Pricing is important for Android's success in India, as the price initially is thought at 10,000.