Search engine that speaks to you

It talks - it is miracle, well if it new

20 April 2006 17:31 GMT / By Stuart Miles

While Google remains top of the pile when it comes to searches online, it isn't stopping some companies being creative with the search tools they offer.

The latest one is Accoona, a search engine that will allow its users to highlight English-language text on any webpage and have it read aloud in English.

The trouble is that you can already do this both in Microsoft's Windows and Apple's OS10 with free software pre-installed from the start.

Apple users have Speech, which allows you to select text and at the press of a button have it read back to you by a number of different voices.

While Windows users have Narrator, a Text-to-Speech utility for users who are blind or have impaired vision. Narrator reads what is displayed on your screen: the contents of the active window, menu options, or the text that you type.

The company is saying that "Accoona designed the feature for global internet users who want to learn and pronounce English or enhance their English-language skills as a second language".

However the company seems to have overlooked that this “next step in the fast-accelerating evolution of Accoona as one of the Web’s premier search engines”, according to Accoona CEO Stuart Kauder has already been done many years before.

The “Accoona Talking Search Bar” is available starting today and can be installed on any PC by accessing www.accoona.com, while both Narrator and Speech can be found already lurking on your computer.

Earlier this month Google was awarded a patent that will, in the future, allow you to simply ask the search engine for your search request.

Full tags

Software, Online, Search engines