ViaVoice Web is a voice recognition package designed especially for Internet users. It links into email programs, both Netscape and Microsoft Web browsers, chat programs and includes special Web oriented jargon to make it much easier to take voice recognition onto the Internet. This does come at a price, however the Web edition is weaker in its ability to work with standard Office programs. For instance, when using the product with standard word processing applications, Via Voice's Speak Pad - a dictation style WordPad - is used rather than direct dictation.

The basic recognition technology has improved; the accuracy rate was initially higher than I've experienced with previous versions, however the reported 98 per cent recognition rates shouldn't be expected in Australia. The ViaVoice world has been divided into different voice models based on accent to improve recognition rates, and for Australia it was decided that the UK accent was good enough. This seems even more inadequate with the recent launch of Dragon's Australian vocabulary, which includes Aussie slang and colloquialisms among other things, and high recognition rates will only be gained once ViaVoice is familiar with each user's voice pattern, a process that can take quite
some time.

I was disappointed that IBM chose to have this version of ViaVoice unable to update my voice pattern from previous versions. Having spent many hours on the previous version of the program to improve accuracy rates, it was frustrating to say the least to discover I had to start again from scratch. This may discourage other users of the product from upgrading. Without the excellent ten minute training engine used in Dragon's NaturallySpeaking Preferred 4 (reviewed issue 26, p114), there is nothing to lighten this tedious procedure. However on the plus side, ViaVoice learns your personal style, as it is able to scan documents you have typed to learn how you write including any unfamiliar words you commonly use.
When using a browser, ViaVoice scans the Web page looking for links. To activate one you say the link word or phrase, for example 'contact us'. I was impressed with the application's ability to find links, however be warned that the browser's toolbar is also considered fair game. Thus at a search engine, if you say 'search' rather than clicking on the page's search button, it selects the Web browser's search tool. This can create hassles at times, so IBM has included a work around using a number for each link, which ViaVoice will display on screen for a short time. Remembering which number belongs to which link is another matter.

It was with some trepidation I tested the chat room feature. Dictating live means that there is no option to go back and correct. With real people at the other end, speaking nonsense isn't a great decision either, even in IRC.
Surprisingly, this worked reasonably well. Because in conversation each person only speaks for a short time, there are less opportunities for a mistake. Even though ViaVoice still made errors, by speaking in short bursts it was possible for the other users to 'get the gist' of what I was saying. Even if ViaVoice didn't get the sentence correct the first time, by saying the sentence another way, I could normally get my meaning across.

ViaVoice is designed to work with Outlook 97, 98, and 2000, Outlook Express, and Netscape Communicator. As with the browsers, to run features and click buttons in Outlook you just have to say the word. For example to send an email, you say 'send'. Be careful when first using this feature however. During early testing ViaVoice missed a 'go to sleep' command to turn the microphone off when the phone rang, resulting in the message being sent as soon as 'send' was said in the phone conversation. This has the prospect of becoming more than a nuisance if not carefully watched, but is less likely to happen over time as accuracy rates rise.

There is also a read back facility, to read emails out loud - a real bonus for blind people. Listening to the playback alone is hard, as although ViaVoice read words like 'com' as one word, other common email symbols such as '>' (commonly used to show the original message and to highlight email addresses) are also picked up and pronounced verbally. Having 'greater than' scattered throughout the reading made it harder to pick out the message from the white noise.

In all, there were only minor concerns over how the application performed. For someone who uses the Web a great deal and wants an alternative to button pushing, ViaVoice Web is well worth a look.