oneSearch with Voice: First Look

Yahoo has launched a free application that lets iPhone owners, as well as owners of 80 other handsets, search the web with their voice.

Web User's News Editor Ben Camm-Jones takes Yahoo oneSearch with Voice for the iPhone for a test drive.

Though owners of some BlackBerry phones and Nokia 60 series handsets have been able to use this application since last year, iPhone compatibility makes this the first time a voice-activated search engine is available for Apple's iconic gadget.

Downloading and installing the application is quick and easy and actually comes as part of a complete suite of Yahoo applications.

Anyone who has already downloaded Yahoo's oneSearch app for the iPhone should be prompted to install the update when they visit the App Store on their handset.

We've updated this article since Yahoo pointed out to us that by default the app is set to US English. This can be changed, though not actually within the app itself, you have to go into the Settings menu on the iPhone.

Also - it seems strange that an app which asks you to specify your location so it can give you information about services local to you, wouldn't know to set the language to UK English when you specify London as your locale.

Yahoo has confirmed to Web User that these are issues that it is working to change, so though it may be unintuitive now, it should be much better in future. We'd suggest making choosing the language setting an unavoidable part of the setup before you first use it.

In our tests, the UK version of the application had no problems with cinema, restaurant, train timetable or Formula One. However, it did come up with some odd results such as 'ski school' for cricket scores, and 'easy' for Web User magazine.

So it isn't perfect, but it does a pretty good job and once Yahoo introduces changes that let you choose the appropriate language during setup then it'll be well worth installing on your iPhone.