C-Net recently announced a new service by Google that allows you to perform Local Voice Search.

The service is pretty straightforward: you dial an 800 number, and via speech recognition, you can say the category of business you’re looking for or the name of the business you need and will be connected to that business for free (even though it was reported there were some recognition issues with business names).

This makes things really interesting considering Microsoft recently acquired Local Voice Search capabilities as well through the acquisition of Tellme.

The Google Blog has more details about the service itself: “Google Voice Local Search lets you search for local businesses from any phone and for free. You can find a business listing by category, send the listing details to your mobile phone via SMS, it is fully automated, and connects you free of charge.”