Google Explains Censoring of Nexus One Voice-to-Text

Jan 25 2010, 11:20am CST | by Robert Evans

In a case of ridiculously self-indulgent wordplay, Reuters claims to have discovered a "major limitation" of the Nexus One. The issue? It censors obscenities uttered in voice-to-text mode.

Of course, this is something every single Nexus One owner realized within about an hour of turning on their new smartphone. I spent about forty glorious minutes swearing like a sailor into mine, trying to figure out which words were banned and which ones were deemed 'okay' by Google.

In case you're curious, "balls" is not censored, and neither is "crap-spackle". The word "butt", however, is apparently a little too racy.

So why the "censorship"? Google responded to a Reuters enquiry;

“We filter potentially offensive or inappropriate results because we want to avoid situations whereby we might misrecognize a spoken query and return profanity when, in fact, the user said something completely innocent,”

In essence, Google doesn't want you to accidentally curse out your mother or boss because of an error in their text-to-speech software. That's...actually a perfectly reasonable explanation. It would be nice if we could turn the censorship mode off, though.

where to buy

Buy from Amazon

What Others Say about This

Celebrating Valentines Day!

KATHMANDU, Feb 14: ““To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.” Lao-Tzu Whether it’s being in love, being loved back in return or just love something that you adore, the meaning of love remains the same. ...
Full article at: Republica More like this 50 minutes ago

Britain frees radical cleric Abu Qatada

London: A radical cleric once described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe" was freed from a British prison to live under virtual house arrest on Monday after a court ruled that his detention without trial was unlawful. The Jordanian preacher ...
Full article at: Zee News More like this 56 minutes ago

Rapper P Diddy rushed to hospital

Rapper and producer Sean Puff Daddy Combs was taken to hospital following a post-Grammy party he hosted at Hugh Hefners Playboy Mansion on Sunday. According to TMZ.com, the 42-year-old was rushed to the University of California Los Angeles emergency room ...
Full article at: TVNZ More like this 1 hour ago

Don't miss ...

Mobile Phones

4 Million iPhone 4S sold in First Weekend

Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.