Google adds speech-recognition to Apple's iPhone 3G

Google has announced a new application for the Apple iPhone 3G, which should be available in the iPhone's App Store any day now. The free application will add speech recognition technology to the iPhone, allowing users to simply speak a question and receive search results directly from Google.

The application allows users to ask things such as 'Where is the nearest Starbucks,' which the application will then save as a digital audio file and send to Google's servers. The servers will attempt to determine the words in the message, and pass the converted information along to the Google search engine.

Search results may include local information, such as the Starbucks example, or may simply be information, such as the number of people who live in San Francisco. [via New York Times]