Google launches Cantonese voice search for smartphone users in Hong Kong

Cantonese is widely spoken in Hong Kong, but Chinese script is much harder to type than the Latin alphabet, especially on mobile devices with small or virtual keyboards, while speaking is generally much faster and more natural than typing.

Google's Cantonese Voice Search allows Hong Kong users to speak queries instead of entering Chinese characters on mobile devices to look up information.

Users of Android 2.2 and iPhone just have to leave a message like 'Xmas lights in Tsim Sha Tsui' via the microphone and then Google will conduct a search on their behalf through its internet voice recognition.

Google Search by Voice has been available in a growing number of languages since the internet giant launched its first US English system in 2008. Search by phone in Mandarin for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan became available in 2009, as well as in Japanese and Korean.

Hoffman is the PR agency behind the promotion of Google's the new service offering, released yesterday.