Speech Search From Google

A new addition to Google News enables users to search for quotations within news stories.

The search engine says the idea is to allow people to find original quotes from speeches made by politicians and other public figures.

Users access the new option by searching for a name in Google News which then brings up, before articles found about this person, a quote results link and a recent quote if there is one.

The searcher can then click on the link to be taken to pages of excerpts from speeches made by the person and reported by the media.

Google says users can then search within these quotations for specific key terms.

For example, I searched for Gordon Brown and clicked on his quotes results page.



Then I performed a search within these results for terms such as election and credit crunch, which produced a small number of relevant quotes and links to the original articles in which they feature.

This seems a useful tool for journalists, and Google reckons it has a mass appeal too as it will enable people to keep track of what their “favourite politician, actor or sports star is saying”.