Tech Talk

Travels With Google

By Oliver Hartman

In addition to ramping up their social networking abilities and creating driver-less cars, Google is actually a darn good traveling companion. They’ve got several new mobile products that are tremendously helpful for travelers.   Anything that can help save time, cut out stress and get more out of our trips makes sense to me. Here are the Google travel apps to know about.

GOOGLE VOICE SEARCH (Android, iPhone, BlackBerry)

You’re waiting for a cab to the airport, your hands are full of luggage, but you want to check your flight’s status. Do you have to set everything down and get yourself situated so you can try to find out online? Not with Google Voice Search. Simply state what you need to know, i.e. “Status of Delta Flight 104.” And voila. The answer will come to you.

I tested this from my apartment in New York City and the first thing that automatically loaded was an entry from FlightStats.com that gave me this information: “Delta flight 104 was scheduled to depart ATL at 7:30 and arrive in Detroit at 9:28.” I also found out that it ACTUALLY departed at 7:38 and arrived at 8:58 in Detroit.

The basic version of Google Voice Search simply uses voice technology to query the Google search engine. Instead of having to type something into my browser window on my phone, I can simply say “Weather in Miami” and Google will automatically load weather search results for that city. I can also sort out foreign currency exchanges by simply asking questions such as “How many Euros to a dollar?”

But there’s more. These Voice Actions now extend beyond simple web search for Android phones. You can call a business, just by saying its name: “call Balthazar New York” and you’ll be speaking to their host without touching a button. Say “go to FarewellTravels” and the website loads. You can also do things like say “Call Bill at home” and the phone will search your contacts, find Bill, and select his “home” phone number and call it.

Verdict: Google Voice Search is easy and faster than going to your browser and typing in your search query. There is really no reason NOT to use it. Just be sure to speak clearly and not hold your phone too close to your face when you speak into it.

GOOGLE MAPS NAVIGATION (Android, iPhone, BlackBerry)

When Google Maps first came to mobile devices, many of my friends stopped using printed maps altogether. Now it has been upgraded to Google Maps Navigation, an internet connected GPS navigation system with voice guidance.

One of the new functions is Traffic View, which shows traffic information on your map: red roads are congested, green roads are traffic free. Another new function (for Android only) is Voice Navigation. Voice Navigation uses Android’s “Voice Actions” capabilities, which I mentioned earlier. Imagine that I was crazy and wanted to join the throngs of tourists in Times Square for New Year’s Eve. I could simply say “Navigate to Times Square” and a Google Map with a marked route appears on my phone.

Verdict: I use Traffic View all the time when I do video production work because we have to route our truck drivers and actors to locations under tight deadlines. Voice Navigation is similarly an effective app that does shave time off a routine task. Like Voice Search, just be aware that this program operates by matching your request with information available on the web. If you are using a location name versus its actual address, it might not work.

GOOGLE GOGGLES (Android, iPhone)

Google Goggles works much like the music discovery app Shazam that became available a few years ago. When you hear a song you don’t know, you can hold up your phone and Shazam identifies the song and artist. With Google Goggles, you take a photo of something and Goggles gives you information using visual search technology.
For example, if you’re visiting New York and take a photo of that attractive building with the patina roof on Broadway, Google Goggles will analyze the image and pull up other images and information about the Woolworth Building. Since the app cross references information available on the web, it clearly has limitations. For the time being, it is most effective with landmarks, well-known commercial logos, book covers, CDs, and movies. When I took a photo of a passing UPS truck, the app brought me right to their website.

Verdict: Finding out the name of a building or information on a good bottle of wine is still as simple as asking a human being, but Goggles is a good surrogate as long as you are photographing something that is referenced on the web. For instance, when I took a picture of my forehead, no information appeared. How insulting. And I’m not sure how it will do with very similar buildings in different parts of the world. Will it think the Gothic cathedral in Quito is Notre Dame in Paris? Will recognizing the Dutch architecture have you learning about St. Maarten when you’re actually in the Bo-Kaap district of Cape Town?

GOOGLE TRANSLATE (Android, iPhone)

Google Translate is a straightforward, fantastic app. For languages I’m familiar with – French and Spanish –it is the most sensitive translator I’ve used on the web.
It also offers an audio file so you can hear the word or phrase pronounced. However, this is only available for more popular Western languages like French, Spanish, German, Italian and Dutch. I wanted to see if they could adapt to uncommon phrasings so I diverged from my testing regime of standard travel questions (such as “Where is the bathroom” and “What time does the train leave?”) and asked “Why is there a monkey in my soup?” For both French and Spanish, my cyber helper nailed the pronunciation. However, if you try Afrikaans, Czech or Chinese,the apps verbal rendition is not nearly as refined; you hear a stream of hard, robotic syllables. For other languages you can see a phonetic pronunciation guide.

Verdict: For written translations it is one of the best out there. If you don’t understand the rules of pronunciation for the language you are trying to speak, take the auditory pronunciation with a grain of salt, although they have done quite well with Romance languages.

Getting the Apps You Want: All Google apps are FREE and can be downloaded from Android's Market, the i-Tunes App Store or the BlackBerry Apps Store.

Bear in mind, however, that while the apps are free, your carrier might charge fees depending on your plan and/or roaming status. Speak with your mobile carrier, especially if you plan to use these apps internationally.