Tynan Writes

As a general rule, when it comes to doing things smarter or better than everyone else, Google kicks ass. Sure, there are some notable faceplants. Google Buzz? Google Wave? Even Google+ isn’t exactly a world beater.

But in general, working at Google = genius, more often than not. With one enormous exception: transcription services for Google Voice.

I have a Google Voice number, and when I don’t pick up, Google records a message and then emails a speech-to-text transcript of the message. At best, these transcriptions are barely decipherable. Sometimes they enter the world of high comedy.

Take this recent message I received:

Hi Dan, My name is Amanda keep on calling for the new company and he A T I was a miserable dotcom. I saw your recent article high tech gadgets a death in God and I want to reach out to you and submit a product for your review from the company either the need. That’s going the seats. Please feel free to gimme a call back at any time. My number is [deleted]. Alternatively, My email is a page at our field group, dot, com and I’ll talk to you about the Pat, Thank so much and have a great day.

There’s something kind of poetic about all of that. Why, yes, now that I think about it, ATI was a miserable dotcom. Are high tech gadgets killing God? That’s a bit of a stretch, but I suppose it’s worth considering.

Really, Google. What are you trying to tell me? That a company with more money than God can’t solve this problem, even though things like Siri handle far more difficult tasks far better?

I think you need to pour a few more of those Google billions into figuring out what people are trying to tell me when they call me.

That’s what I’d call going the seats.

Tags: Google, google voice