Google Asks for Help to Improve Quality of Voicemail Transcription

One of the most exciting features of Google Voice is its transcription service. Assuming all is working as it should, users can read voicemail messages like one reads an e-mail. Unfortunately, the service does not work as expected. In fact, I find the transcription is practically worthless. At times, the message is so riddled with errors that I end up ignoring it all together.

Google must realize this weakness because in the latest Google Voice blog, the company asks its users to go beyond rating the message quality. Today, you can donate your voicemail, which "may be listened to, manually transcribed by us and/or used to gauge transcription improvements over time, but they will never be made public or used for any other purpose than improving the transcription quality."


What do you think about Google's transcription service? What concerns would you have with donating your voicemail to improve overall quality?

Until next time...