If Michael Arrington from TechCrunch is right, Google’s iPhone voice recognition application should hit Apple’s iTunes store today. (Apparently there was a misunderstanding between Google and Apple that created the widespread belief that the free application would be available last Friday…)

In any case, Google’s technology is pretty neat. Basically, it enables iPhone users to generate Google search results based on a question they ask into the phone. The sound is converted into a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which attempt to decipher the words spoken, and then send them to Google’s search engine.

Using some of the iPhone’s features, the technology will also take into account the user’s location to generate localized search results.

Source: Michael Arrington, “Update On Google iPhone Voice Recognition App: Look For It On Monday”, TechCrunch, November 16, 2008

According to Adgooroo, U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama is more than five times more popular on the Internet than his rival, John McCain… if web traffic is anything to go by.

Adgooroo’s analysis reveals that more than five times the amount of traffic is being driven each month to websites relating to Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign. compared with those relating to John McCain’s campaign.

Meanwhile, the bulk of all this traffic is going to the main Obama and McCain websites. Nearly 93 percent of Obama-related web traffic is going directly to the Obama website, while 73 percent of McCain traffic is going to the main McCain website.

Interestingly, while there are 3.5 times more pro-Obama websites than pro-McCain websites on the Internet, McCain’s ‘grassroots supporter’ sites are receiving 11 percent more traffic than Obama’s grassroots sites.

Adgooroo’s evaluation of Obama’s and McCain’s respective search marketing efforts reveals that both campaigns are fairly equal in the level of sophistication of their paid search programs. The McCain campaign is apparently better at keyword selection, while the Obama campaign seems to be better at targeting topical keywords.

Obama’s campaign, meanwhile, is evidently winning in organic search. While McCain’s website ranks on the first page of Google search results for 67 keywords, Obama ranks on the first page for 117 keywords.

The big question is… what bearing does such Internet activity have on how the American public will vote?

Source: Adgooroo, “Searching for the Next President: the Internet’s impact on McCain vs. Obama”, Press Release