Google announced on Wednesday the launch of its vocal search tool in Russian for mobile phones, Novie Izvestiya reported. From yesterday onwards, users of Android-run platforms, iPhones, iOS devices as well as Nokia S60 have been able to install Google Voice Search.

"Voice has always been the most natural way to interact with a phone - speaking is typically faster and easier than typing," wrote Google Speech Technologies Manager Amir Mane in a blog post, "Our goal is to bring Google Search by voice to speakers of all languages."

Image: PC World

The Russian-language venture was largely due to the growing number of smartphone users in the country and the reasonable cost of mobile Web access, Vesti.ru explained. Andrei Doronichev, Google's Manager of mobile products, mentioned that more than 12 million Russian citizens access the Internet from mobile phones.

"You can search things even when you don't know the correct spelling. It's more fun as you can share what you're doing with your friends. And it's safer when you're walking around. Once you start using voice search, you start discovering all sorts of new ways to use it," Google stated, Softpedia reported.

Hugo Barra, director of mobile products, predicted that in five years' time, smartphone use would surpass desktop computers. He added that over a quarter of search queries on Android-run devices make use of Google Voice Search, Vesti.ru mentioned.

Russian search engine Yandex plans to launch a similar feature by the end of 2010, according to Fontanka.ru. Google Voice Search is currently available in languages such as English, Italian, Spanish, German, French, Japanese and Mandarin.