Google looks to voice-based interface as web search goes mobile

Google, the world's most visited web address, is in search for a new voice-based interface as internet search increasingly gets centred around mobile phones and tablet computers.

Google, which on an average handles 100 billion searches a month, needs a new voice-based interface as web search enters the next frontier of mobile search.

Search accounts for the bulk of Google's $50 billion (35 billion pound) annual income and a voice-based interface for mobile search is a challenge that Google cannot ignore anymore.

And, for the India-bred VP of Google's search business Ben Gomes, there is a better possibility of a solution getting easy with the touch screen technology and a really good microphone.

"It can enable a new kind of interface. So we realised we want to build an interface that was much like the way you talk to some person and ask a question," the BBC quoted Gomes as saying.

While Google already has a voice-based software for search application that responds to questions, Gomes told the BBC that the process is "going to get better and more intelligent".

Gomes, 45, and his team at Googleplex are having a continuous conversation with the users to find out what they wants even as they continue working on "their fine-tooth comb search of the worldwide web to serve up the popular search engine".

"When I joined Google in 1999, search was about basically finding the words that you search for in a document. Then we took this view that we were going to understand what you want and give you what you need," BBC quoted Gomes as saying.