Google And Microsoft Want To Hear From You

Google (GOOG) , and online rival Microsoft Corp., are using their free directory services to build vast, digital Petri dishes loaded with samples of users' speech patterns. Those patterns are in turn are being fed into the companies' myriad server computers, where they are analyzed in an effort to make their respective speech recognition technologies progressively smarter. The development of increasingly precise speech recognition technology begs the question of whether Google and Microsoft will one day use it to "listen" to users, in order to serve them relevant advertising -- likely raising privacy concerns. [click heading for more]