Last week saw the Google’s Mobile App for iPhone released, including a Google Voice Search allowing Apple fans to search by talking rather than typing into their handset. While the app may be awesome, there is one problem: you not only have to speak English, you have to have an American accent.

As Dave Jeyes detailed on Blorge last week, Google Voice Search isn’t that new, with the company’s engineers toiling for years to create a successful voice-activated search engine interface. Google Labs first released Google Voice Search in 2002 but the new iPhone service has a much bigger chance of catching on than that failed attempt.

However, there is still one hurdle that needs to be overcome if the iPhone version of Google Voice Search is really going to become as huge as it deserves to. Google helpfully warns that “Voice Search only works in English, and works best for North American English accents,” but saying it works best for American accents seems to be a slight understatement.

British users are reporting some bizarre search results when they speak in their normal, regional accents. As Yahoo details, users have found their iPhones mistaking the word “iPhone” with “sex,” “Einstein,” and “kitchen sink.”

The problems seems to be affecting iPhone owners with accents as diverse as Scottish, Geordie (Newcastle), Cockney (London), and even the Home Counties which are where BBC English usually reigns supreme. Bizarrely, the Yorkshire accent seems to get the best results of any regional British dialect.

The only solution at the present time for anyone outside of North America who wants to use the app seems to be to put on a U.S. accent. Which means that British iPhone users will soon be walking down the street putting on their best deep south American drawl or mafia-inspired New York affectation in order to search for the latest football results. Maybe typing is easier and less embarrassing after all.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 9:24 pm under Google, Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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