Google have patented Voice interface for a search engine, where the user can search for any information via voice and recieve results in the same form. In the slashdot post they notice that : the master of text-based search could be looking to lend a voice to Internet users everywhere, or so it appears based on Google’s latest patent. Patent #7,027,987, issued today by the US Patent and Trademark Office, covers a ‘Voice interface for a search engine.’. Here is the abstract of the patent #7,027,987

A system provides search results from a voice search query. The system receives a voice search query from a user, derives one or more recognition hypotheses, each being associated with a weight, from the voice search query, and constructs a weighted boolean query using the recognition hypotheses. The system then provides the weighted boolean query to a search system and provides the results of the search system to a user.