Google is due to release an update to its mobile application for the iPhone that will enable users to speak search terms into the phone rather than using the keypad.
The application uses the iPhone's motion sensor to determine when to start recording, and then performs the search. The application is location sensitive, so searching for Coffee shops' will bring up a list of coffee houses in the users vicinity.
There has been some confusion regarding when the application would appear on the iPhone app store. Details of the applications were released by the New York Times on Thursday, with the expectation that it would appear on the App Store on Friday, with Google having already starting to promote the feature.
However, at time of writing, the updated version of the Google Mobile App had yet to appear. Apple vets all applications that appear on its app store, and it would appear that - despite its high profile - Google does not get special treatment.
Many commentators have also noted that the application is being made available for Apple's iPhone, ahead of Google's own G1 Android device.
However, Google's Mobile team and its Android team operate independently, and Apple's iPhone has currently shipped approximately seven million iPhones, while Android platform based handsets have only recently launched.
"I want to bring the most valuable applications to as many users as possible," Gummi Hafsteinsson, senior product manager for Google's mobile team, told the LA Times. "We treat all high-end [mobile] platforms equally."
