Google has elevated the profile of its attempt to make videos searchable through speech-recognition technology, a move that portends a potentially more financially successful YouTube division.
The speech-recognition technology was used in an online application, launched in July, that let people search political speeches, and now the Gaudi (Google Audio Indexing) project has an official interface at Google Labs.
The site's search box has instructions: "Search what the politicians are saying."
The search results are presented next to a YouTube video player, and clicking each result sets the player to show the part of the video where the words were spoken. It doesn't just show speeches; a search for 'bridge to nowhere' also returned the 'Real Mavericks' ad from the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign.
Extracting words from videos could make it easier for Google to determine what content is in the video and therefore what ads are most appropriate to show next to them. Making money from YouTube is a top priority for Google this year.
Speech-to-text conversion also could help Google blend relevant videos into search results. Currently, the best way to understand what's in a video is by examining the accompanying metadata, such as titles and captions, but such information is often much less comprehensive than what is spoken in the video.
With Google's translation work, it is also possible that the company could transcribe videos' text into other languages.
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Google has big ambitions for the audio-recognition technology.
"The aim of Google Audio Indexing on Google Labs is broader [than that of the Google Elections Video Search gadget], and the US election is just a first step. We see it as an experiment platform where we can learn what features make the best user experience for people looking for spoken content on the web," the company said in a FAQ page on the Google Audio Indexing project.
Google is beginning with political information because it's trying to become a prominent part of the democratic process and because political speeches receive a lot of attention, the company said.
Also, because politicians generally make efforts not to mumble, the speech-recognition technology performs better, Google said.
