Use your voice to look for places and get directions on Google Maps

Google is making serious investments in voice search. After launching voice controlled searches on google.com and its Android and iPhone apps, Google is bringing voice search to Google Maps in the US.

“Without using your keyboard, you can now talk into Google Maps to look for places and get directions. If you’re using a Chrome web browser in the U.S. (English only for now), simply click the microphone icon and speak into your computer,” said Google Software Engineer Jed Burgess in a post on the company’s Lat Long Blog.

Google suggests that voice commands will come in handy when searching for hard-to-spell places (such as Poughkeepsie or Liechtenstein) or to quickly and easily get directions from one place to another. Voice controls will also work in the Google Earth layer.

Google is not the only company investing in voice search. In June Microsoft announced it was bringing its Bing voice search to the Xbox to give users “ultimate control” over their console.

“Thanks to Bing, Kinect and our voice recognition technology, we envision a future where the words ‘Hey, where’s the remote?’ are as outdated as eight-track tapes and rotary telephones,” said Frank X. Shaw Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications, Microsoft in an August 17 post on the Microsoft Blog.

Try Google’s voice controlled Map features by heading to Google Maps and saying your query.