Google answers Siri with its Majel for Android!

When Apple released the iPhone 4S to the world, it was more than a new iPhone – it brought with it a new way of interacting with technology. That new way was the first real way of talking to a piece of software using natural language. Yes we have had voice commands before, but software was listening for very specific words and a very specific syntax. Siri changed that.

Even though still technically in beta and not exactly fully functional yet, Siri lit a fire under the engineers at Google. Nobody likes to be beaten by the competition, but when it comes to voice interaction, Apple’s engineers certainly came out on top, even if they did get a little help from the purchase of Siri.

All that may be set to change as early as the first quarter of 2012, though, as it would appear that Google is hard at work trying to recreate the Siri magic for its own Android devices, and they mean business.

What Google is working on goes by the name of Majel, which for those that are not into their Star Trek trivia is named after the late Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. Majel was the voice actress for the computer in Star Trek Generations and beyond, which gives Google’s efforts a lot of geek cred, even if it never makes it to market!

Via Redmondpie