I’m excited about Google Voice as the next guy. A few limitations of the “first fully automated email transcription” service have already been revealed and reported in the tech press. ( The New York Times tech-blogger Dave Gallagher has amusing test results here. ) It’s easy to smirk at the missteps of the awseome computing power that’s at work here. But there are other service that rely less on server racks and more on old-fashioned human power to get the job done.
It was more than a little amusing to read how Google Voice,transcribe its own name into “cool voice.” (fyi: Speech processing software has a more difficult time with consonants than vowels.)
Simulscribe is one of those services— there are others — that brings in human transcribers for words that stump the speech software. I tried its Phone Tag a few months and thought it did a very capable job. There is some delay in getting the text of the message. Still, if you value accuracy over speed…
Just a reminder that Google didn’t invent everything. 
Tags: google, simulscribe
