Google gets an Australian accent, will guide you to the servo

DUST off your pluggers and quiz your phone about the nearest Macca’s or servo this arvo. Google has updated its voice recognition to include Aussie accents.

Petrol at Budget Petrol at North Rocks. Pictured is Karina Ford filling her car.

INTERNET giant Google has finally adopted an Aussie accent and can guide you to the best servos in Brissy, find the closest Macca’s to Turramurra, or let you in on the horrifying secret behind drop bears.

The company revealed local voice updates to its Google app today, even releasing a computerised singalong to Geoff’s Mack’s song I’ve Been Everywhere in which it accurately pronounces place names from Indooroopilly to Mullumbimby, Goondiwindi to Gundagai.

The update arrives just days after Google exhibited an stolen generation-themed artwork for Australia Day.

Canberra High School student Ineka Voigt created the Stolen Dreamtime artwork that graced the Google homepage for Australia Day in 2016.

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Fair dinkum Aussie words added to Google’s vocabulary in the latest update include abbreviations “arvo” and “Brissy” (Brisbane), and several stores from “servos” (service stations) and “Maccas” (McDonald’s restaurants) to “Woolies” (Woolworths supermarkets).

Local wildlife such as quokkas also get a mention, as do drop bears, finally exposing the scary truth behind the legendary characters.

Google Australia also revealed mobile voice searches, which can be triggered using the phrase “OK Google,” more than doubled in 2015, as mobile search traffic exceeded desktop searches worldwide.

The use of ‘OK Google’ has become more popular in the past year.

Rival phone firm Apple also supports many of Google’s new additions, with Siri proving fluent in arvo, servo and quokka.

Siri was less conversant in Brissy and Maccas, however, and couldn’t demonstrate what sheep say.

Originally published as Google gets an Australian accent, will guide you to the servo