Google’s voice.

Headline SEO bait aside, it’s not about their phone service. During this weekend’s games they’re running this older Droid spot with Lance Henrickson handling voiceover duties. Yes, they’ve already dabbled with a mass market campaign, but it made me wonder what the voice of Google would be like if it had one. I thought about other products with iconic voices, such as Kevin Spacey for Honda Accord, or Sam effing Elliot for just about anything having to do with America.

Tech brands now though – especially mobile – have assumed this collectively vague, indeterminate voice. (So does Apple, when it’s not using songs.) The voices sound fine – they just don’t stand out. Sufficiently generic for sufficiently generic times I suppose.

Don LaFontaine aside, people seem to respond more to a celebrity voice more than they do a generic voiceover artist. With all the different types of people who use Google, the challenge would be in finding that voice which hits most of their demos. Not sure a multiple celeb thing would fly either. That many stars appearing in a spot always feels like an ad campaign, if not a PSA.

As interesting as it would be to hear Sam Elliott letting loose with a gritty “What are you looking for,” I doubt he’d get the call. But, do they even need one? If so, what about a female voice as a nice change of pace in the category?