Google Buzz for mobile now available on more devices

Back in February, we launched Google Buzz for mobile, a tool to start interesting conversations when you are out and about. One of the most popular ways to access Google Buzz for mobile is through the web application (by going to buzz.google.com in your phone’s browser). When Buzz launched, it was only available for devices running Android 2.0+ and iPhone. Not any more! Today we’re a releasing an XHTML version of the Buzz website which can be accessed from many other mobile devices, including those running Android pre-2.0, Blackberry, Nokia S60, and Windows Mobile.

Just type buzz.google.com in your browser. Then when you log in using your password, you will be able to view the stream of buzz posts, post publicly or privately, comment or like a post, and more. On the BlackBerry platform, you can also enable location through your browser settings. This will allow you to get to the Nearby view, where you’ll find geo-tagged posts near you. In addition, you can tag your post with your location. Please note that location features might not work on some devices.

Android pre-2.0 devices can now run the same web app as newer versions of Android. You can also switch to the XHTML version if needed, and we will remember your preference.

We have worked hard to make Google Buzz for mobile accessible on more devices in more locations. It is now available in 37 languages through buzz.google.com and we’re excited to bring it to mobile devices with browsers that don’t support the HTML5 capabilities the webapp uses. We hope that you enjoy using Google Buzz on the go!

Update 5/27/2010 11:17: This new webpage is also functional on Palm WebOS phones.

Posted by Alex Kennberg, Software Engineer, Google Mobile

Search by Voice Comes to Google Maps 4.1 for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 phones

We understand that typing on phones isn’t as easy or fast as talking into them. As a result, we’re big fans of letting you search in Google Maps for mobile in the most natural way possible -- with your voice! Not wanting the BlackBerry and Android folks to have all the fun, today we’re happy to announce Search by voice in Google Maps 4.1 on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 phones.

Search by voice lets you easily search for anything by simply speaking your search terms instead of typing them. Just open Google Maps, press your phone’s “call” button, and clearly speak your search term like “Park Plaza.” Search by voice works with all the kinds of searches Google Maps for mobile already supports, including places, addresses (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway), specific businesses (The French Laundry), or types of businesses (sushi restaurants new york).

You may also notice a few other additions, including a redesigned settings page with Search by voice language choices. Choose your preferred language from the supported options, including multiple English accents and Mandarin Chinese. Also, if you find a problem with any information in Google Maps, you can use the “Report a problem” option to let us know.

To get started, install the latest version of Google Maps for mobile 4.1 for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 by going to m.google.com/maps in your phone’s standard web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile). This update is available in all the countries and languages where Google Maps for mobile is currently available.

Visit our Help Center to learn more or tell us your feedback and questions in our Help Forum. Give us suggestions and vote on other people’s on the Mobile Product Ideas page.

Posted by Yuliang Wang and Yifei Zhang, Software Engineers, Google Mobile Team

Google Search by voice travels the world, finds Nokia, learns Chinese

(cross-posted with Official Google Blog)

Google Search by voice has grown up quickly. Some might say that search by voice has matured from a toddler to a tween. It's certainly been traveling across the English-speaking world and getting better at understanding a range of accents, from the US, UK, India, and Australia. Today it's taking another big step — we're happy to announce that Google search by voice is available for Nokia S60 phones, and now understands Mandarin Chinese.

Nokia S60 phones are popular around the world. If you have an Nseries or Eseries phone such as the N95 or E71, you're using S60. Many of these phones have 12-digit keypads — good for making calls, but not so easy when you need to type a few words. Many of you have asked if we could build our search by voice feature for these phones, and we've been working on this feature for a while.

The new version of Google Mobile App places a shortcut to Google search on your Nokia phone's home screen, allowing you to search using your voice or by typing. You can search for anything — from "movie times", to "fish 'n chips", to "masala dosa." It doesn't matter if you're in London or Bangalore: we'll use your location to give you nearby results. And Google Mobile App shows search results in the application, so you don't have to wait for a web browser to launch to get an answer.

Although it has taken a little while to get this release ready, we have been planning the launch for some time as you can see from this footage from the archives.



Up until now voice search has only been available in English, but the new version of Google Mobile App for Nokia S60 devices works for Mandarin speakers, too. We're really proud of the work we've done with Mandarin speech recognition, both because it's the most spoken language in the world, and because of the engineering challenge. To get Mandarin speech recognition to work, we had to learn a lot about this fascinating language — the differences between traditional and simplified Chinese, its tonal characteristics, automatic segmentation of text into words, pinyin representations of Chinese characters, sandhi rules, the different accents and languages in China, unicode representations of Chinese character sets...the list goes on and on.

Mandarin speakers can now search by voice for complex queries like 清华大学附近的水煮鱼 (which translates to "water-boiled fish near Tsinghua University"). Although this only works on the Nokia S60 at the moment, we're working on adding support for Mandarin speech recognition to our products on other mobile platforms, such as Android and iPhone. And bear in mind that this is a first version of our system in Mandarin, and it might not be as polished as our English version. For example, if you have a strong southern Chinese accent, it might not work as well as for people with a Beijing accent. However, our system will improve over time, so please give it a try!


Google Mobile App in Mandarin Chinese

Note that the application is for version 3 of Nokia S60 - more recent phones running version 5 (touch screen) are not yet supported.

To download the new version of Google Mobile App on your Nokia S60 phone, visit m.google.com from your phone's browser. For questions and support, visit our Help Forum.

Posted by Elke Michlmayr, Software Engineer

The importance of being immediate - Google Mobile App now for Nokia S60 smartphones

As a user experience designer I like to take every opportunity to better understand the issues that get in the way of people making the most of their mobile phones. The development of Google Mobile App for Nokia S60 smartphones, which launched today, has provided an opportunity to address three aspects of an issue we hear about on a regular basis: immediacy.

1. Immediacy of access

We know from our users that navigating through menus introduces an unwanted delay. Our quick key mechanism launches the application directly from the home screen, making search, Google Maps, Gmail, and other Google mobile services available immediately.


The quick key reminder (left) and the app showing your current location (right)


2. Immediacy of location
Google Mobile App for Nokia Series 60 smartphones comes with location awareness built in. If you use the My Location feature, you'll get local search results that relate to where you are. You can opt in or out of this at any time, via the Settings menu.


Search suggestions that combine with your location to give local search results


3. Immediacy of query formulation

We have adopted a dual approach to help make query formulation quick and efficient. First, your search history is readily available so that it's easy to repeat queries. Second, we offer query suggestions based on what has been entered so far to get you to your results as quickly as possible.

Search history (left) and search suggestions (right)

Additionally, we like to work with feedback about earlier versions of our products, such as the quick key launch feature. We found that some users didn't need a home screen reminder, while others liked having it there. So in Google Mobile App, we added an item in Settings to let people choose what best suits them.

Google Mobile App can be downloaded from http://m.google.com on your phone's browser. Give it a try and please keep all the feedback coming - your input is invaluable to making sure we get products and features right.

Posted by Benedict Davies, User Experience Designer, Google Mobile Team

Street View on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile? Check.

(cross posted with the Google LatLong Blog)

In case you hadn't noticed, the Google Street View team has been busy photographing France, Italy, Spain, and Australia. Given the international focus of recent Street View launches, it's time we make Street View accessible on phones that are especially popular in those countries. We're excited to announce the availability of Google Maps for mobile version 2.3 with Street View on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile. Street View was previously released on Google Maps for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone.

Street View lets you access street level imagery to help orient yourself when looking for places, businesses, or getting directions. Say you're going to meet with friends at an unfamiliar restaurant. Now you can search for it in Google Maps for mobile, click on "Street View", and see what the place and surrounding area look like. Similarly, say you need to get to a shop in a part of town you don't know. Find it using your phone, get directions to it, and see how to get there with full-screen panorama images of every step along the way.

While Street View is not yet available everywhere, we'll continue rolling out support across other geographies in the coming months.

Check out this demo of Street View (albeit on a BlackBerry) to get an idea of how things work:


Besides Street View, the new version of Google Maps for mobile also has a bunch of other new features: request walking directions (in addition to driving and public transit) to get anywhere on foot, receive transit alerts from participating public transportation authorities, and see what other people think of a place by reading reviews directly on your phone. We've also overhauled the entire user interface to make the app more responsive and easier to use.

So if you have a Nokia S60 or Windows Mobile smartphone, go ahead and download the new version of Google Maps by visiting google.com/gmm on your phone. Enjoy the (street) view!

Posted by Flavio Lerda, Software Engineer

Faster search for Nokia smartphones now available in eight international flavours

Posted by Paul Hadfield, Software Engineer, Google mobile team

Back in February we announced a new search shortcut for Nokia smartphones. We've been really pleased with the uptake and with the very positive reaction it's received from the Symbian community. Even though we launched it in the US, we saw some very interesting usage patterns -- people all around the world were downloading and using it.

Of course, Symbian phones are popular almost everywhere. So we're now releasing an international version of the search shortcut for those of you in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia and the UK. Nokia smartphone owners in these countries can now enjoy 40% faster search and get Google search results from their own country.
It's a free download. Just add it to your phone now by going to the URL for your country using the phone's browser and then choosing the download link for Search. The download and installation should only take a minute or so and you'll be good to go. Happy searching!