What's your funniest Google Voice transcription flub?
Share with us the most garbled messages "transcribed" from free visual voice mail like Google Voice or YouMail.
Earlier this week, I bashed Google's visual voice mail service for its inability to transcribe my voice messages into understandable English. (OK, most of the article really focuses on a new flexibility in Google Voice, which I do like.) To be fair, poor transcription isn't all Google's fault. They're offering a free service based on a computer-aided technology that improves each year. The real problem is that machine transcription just isn't good enough.
Up until yesterday, I hadn't received more than a handful of visual voice mail message translations imbued with any meaning in my native tongue. In fact, I turned off SMS forwarding because I couldn't handle the streams of nonsensical texts that would pour in for each voice mail left. Thankfully, I won't miss the yucks stemming from mismatched voice-to-text at all, not when I can still read the messages in my online Google Voice in-box over and over again.
Do you have any favorite mistranslations produced by free computer-aided transcription engines? Share yours in the comments--or better yet, e-mail me if you'd like to take place in our anonymous gallery--and I'll share three errata from my in-box below.
The longer the message, the more creative the transcription.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)
Despite its brevity, the only accurate word in this transcription is "hello."
(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)
That's right! You go and procure the message, people!
(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)
