Nuance Dragon Go! Free Voice-Powered Semantic Search App For Android Review

There are a lot of bad Siri imitators in the Android Market, but at CES, Nuance Communications is launching an Android version of Dragon Go, its voice-powered semantic search app and Nuance developed the speech recognition and natural language technology that powers Siri and many other voice assistant services, but it also maintains its own consumer-facing applications under the Dragon banner. Asking Dragon Go for show times for a movie and it would take you to Fandango, where the nearest theaters and their movies schedules would be listed giving you the option to immediately by tickets and also like Siri, Dragon Go can access Wolfram Alpha to provide answers to scientific or technical questions. Dragon Go! is completely free and works on Android 2.1 through 2.3.7 using the native Android Media Player and according to the app description, support for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is on its way. The app is country limited and does not appear to work in Singapore and it seems that because the queries are often specific to a particular locale, international support may not be available yet.

Nuance Communications Inc. announced that its revolutionary Dragon Go! app is now available for Android on the Android Market. Dragon Go! gives consumers direct access to over 200 of the most trusted and reliable destinations for mobile content simply by using their voice – including AccuWeather, Ask.com, Bing, Dictionary.com, ESPN, Facebook, Fandango, Last.fm, LiveNation, Milo.com, OpenTable, Pandora internet radio, Rotten Tomatoes, Spotify, Twitter, Wikipedia, Wolfram|Alpha, Yelp, YouTube, Yahoo! and many others. Dragon Go! combines Nuance's Dragon voice recognition and natural language understanding with artificial intelligence technology to dramatically simplify the mobile content experience – start to finish. Dragon Go! not only hears what you say, but actually understands what you mean. It immediately returns the most relevant content front and center on the Dragon Carousel with additional relevant content from complementary providers. Further, Dragon Go!'s unique open design preserves the content partners' original look and feel. "Legacy search applications are fading in mobile. Consumers want immediate and direct access to content – not scrolling, hunting or pecking through search links or filtered content," said Michael Thompson, senior vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. "Dragon Go! gives people the freedom to speak freely, and magically get the content they want."

Dragon Go! features the largest direct-access content ecosystem in mobile today. Consumers can say virtually anything and immediately jump to relevant destinations. For example:

• "What's the best Thai food near me," and instantly be taken to the Yelp tab for local reviews, or flip over to the Phone tab to quickly call to find out about any specials on the menu that evening.
• "Reservations for two at Slanted Door in San Francisco," to be taken directly to OpenTable to book a table for dinner, or scroll over to the Maps tab to find out how to get there from where you are now.
• "Show times for 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' to instantly get to Fandango see show times, buy tickets, read fan reviews and see trailers, and then scroll over to Twitter to see what other people are saying about the movie.
• "Play 'Paradise' by Coldplay" to instantly play and listen the song downloaded on your Android device; on Spotify if you're mobile Premium user; or, on your Coldplay station on Pandora. Users can also pull up the video on the Media tab.
• "What is the formula for sulfur dioxide?" to instantly compute the answer using Wolfram|Alpha's vast knowledge in thousands of subject areas.
• "Who was the most popular celebrity of 2011?" and instantly get the answer from Ask.com.

"Dragon Go! has been incredibly successful since its launch on iOS in July, winning several awards and holding a 4.5 star rating among users. We're delivering fast, direct and open access to content for consumers – it's just a better way to experience the mobile web," said Vlad Sejnoha, chief technology officer, Nuance. "Dragon Go! eliminates the intermediate steps typically required to reach desired web or app destinations. It's only going to get better as we continue to expand partnerships and bring new features and more content tailored for Android consumers." Dragon Go! is available for free on the Android Market in the US in U.S. English.

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