So, I came across this strange and oddly worded press release today, which announces the creation of a toolbar for Internet Explorer that enables speech recognition for Google’s search engine.

According to the release, when the program–created by developers from the Ukraine–is installed, users may enter a search by voice and then either click the search button or say “search!” This redirects users to www.voicesearchbar.com where they will see the results of their search.

From the release: “Authors of the program recommend launching the training mode to enhance the quality of speech recognition. After 3-4 launches of a training mode program recognizes speech pretty good.”

Hmmm.

Apparently, the VoiceSearchBar toolbar is available for download at www.voicesearchbar.com.

I visited the site–it features an attractive blond woman (who evidently likes speech enabled internet searches) and comes with a special dedication: “Dedicated to Bill Gates: ‘In five years, Microsoft expects more Internet searches to be done through speech than through typing on a keyboard.’”

Hmmm.

The site also features an About page that allow users to make donations.

Hmmm.

I really don’t know what to make of this. Part of me feels like if I were to download VoiceSearchBar, my bank account would be instantaneously drained, a vast array of pornographic images would be sent to everyone in my email address book and my computer would explode.

In search of a second opinion and in an effort to not malign what could be a perfectly legitimate product, I contacted a friend in the Speech Tech World.  He seemed to think that my instincts were correct.  He also thought it odd that VoiceSearchBar was being released for Internet Explorer, which is not an open source browser.

I don’t know: Maybe VoiceSearchBar is totally legitimate.  Maybe not.  Does anyone out there have any information about this?