It probably won't replace the keyboard, but it can certainly speed things up. CNN reports on the growing trend for voice recognition technology in tech, and how this trend is starting to get even big players like Google and Microsoft vying for a piece of the pie.

According to CNN, the market's starting to become a billion dollar industry, with everything from the call center industry to the mobile phone and automobile sectors. This next generation of voice recognition is meant to be implemented in just about everything. As they note:

The market for server-based voice-recognition technology to power call centers and the like reached nearly $600 million in 2006 and is expected to double by 2009, according to Opus Research....

The market for speech technology embedded in devices such as phones and auto dashboards - worth about $125 million in 2006, according to research firm Datamonitor - is expected to quadruple to $500 million by 2010... Ultimately, some experts say, voice-recognition systems are likely to be built into almost every gadget, appliance and machine that people use.