Clever Sense, the team that developed Alfred, announced Tuesday that they had been acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount. “We worked hard to build the Clever Sense Platform to tackle the problem of information overload in the real world. … Together with the Google team, we will accelerate our efforts toward this shared vision.”

Alfred lets iOS and Android users “teach” the app the types of places they like to go so when they find themselves in an area where they aren’t sure what to do, Alfred has a pre-sorted list of preferences to apply against businesses in the area. It’s the kind of personalization that Google doesn’t always do as well as others, having been designed to figure out “what’s relevant” in a given context but without as many clues provided directly by the user.

Combined with Majel, which Android and Me reports is Google’s mobile voice-recognition project along the lines of Apple’s Siri, and Google could be putting together an interesting take on mobile search. Google has done an awful lot of voice-recognition work within Android already, but the voice commands on Android don’t necessarily work with the kinds of natural-language phrases that Apple has been advertising heavily for Siri.

Voice search and commands make a ton of sense on a mobile device but remain a tricky engineering problem: trying to tell your phone to call a cab on a windy, rainy corner in a big city at rush hour can easily go awry. Still, it’s a much more intuitive way of interacting with your phone, and Google needs to make sure that it has something equally good as Siri in order to protect its main source of revenue: search advertising.

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What you’ll need

You’ll need an iPhone 4S with Siri turned on to get started, of course; TouchPad by Edovia from the iOS App Store ($4.99); and Alfred running on your target Mac, which you can pick up for free from Alfredapp.com. You’ll also need to make sure Screen Sharing is enabled on your Mac, which you can set up by going to System Preferences > Sharing and then checking the Screen Sharing box.

How it works and what you can do

Alfred basically allows you to quickly accomplish tasks through typing queries, application and filenames, instead of having to use the mouse to navigate through folders and your Launchpad application manager. With TouchPad, you can dictate text instead of typing it, which, if you’re operating a media Mac from your couch, for example saves you a lot of time and potential for improper entry via your iPhone’s software keyboard.

To get started, make sure Alfred is running (after the first run, it should be configured to launch at Login). Then, using TouchPad on your iPhone 4S, select the target Mac as the server, and use the software keyboard to type “Alt (⌥) + Space,” which calls Alfred up. Then, tap the microphone icon on your iOS device’s virtual keyboard within TouchPad, and simply say the name of any application you want to find. It should then transfer the text to Alfred, which will show if it found a match, and you can hit “Return” on your iPhone to launch it.

You can dictate any text you like, and options for searching the web will pop up, including Amazon, Google and Wikipedia by default. In Alfred’s preferences under the Features tab, you can also set up a custom search for any URL of your choosing, such as Facebook for instance.

Under the Features tab, you can set keywords to trigger actions related to certain files. By default, saying “Find xx” will locate files in Finder that match whatever term you use; “Open” followed by a keyword launches the file using its default associated application; and using “in” will find specific instances of a term within a file. Keywords allow you to control system features like shutting down your Mac, restarting or emptying the trash.

Even more possibilities

With the paid Alfred Powerpack for £12 ($18 USD), you can add more features to your Siri-enabled voice commands, including the ability to launch and control iTunes, email a contact or open Address Book, and enter specific URLs that launch automatically in your default browser.

Of course, this is all about Siri basically replacing typing, and you still have to hit the software “Return” key to make the magic happen, but it’s a lot easier than fumbling with VNC or virtual trackpad software when trying to navigate a Mac set up as a media center. If you’ve found other neat ways to use Siri on your Mac, please share them in the comments.

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Although still in beta, Alfred puts up a good fight against its more established peers, especially when it comes to looks. It definitely looks at home on OS X. It also has all the features you’d expect from this type of app, including app-launching, plus file and web search. Those features are included free in the basic beta, or you can purchase the “Powerpack,” which includes extra things like iTunes control, clipboard history and “Result Actions.”

Result Actions allow you to do things such as copy, email and move a file once found, which is very helpful if you just downloaded something and want to move it to somewhere other than Downloads, for instance. Alfred can do that without you ever touching the mouse. When emailing a file, Alfred not only supports Mail.app, but also some popular third-party mail applications like Postbox and Mailplane.

Alfred can perform simple system tasks, too. You can do things such as shut down, empty the trash, log out and start the screensaver by typing the appropriate command and hitting return. It’s a good idea to double check you’ve saved everything you need to first, as the action is carried out immediately. It doesn’t take much time to open the  menu and choose Shut Down, but it does let you keep your hands on the keyboard.

The beta of Alfred (version 0.7.2) is available to download now for free, or you can purchase the Powerpack for £12 GBP (about $20 USD). Purchasing the Powerpack now gets you free updates for 0.X and 1.X. Note that this is a special beta purchase price, so once the app reaches version 1.0, the price will increase. If you want to further support the development of Alfred, you can purchase the “Mega Supporter license,” which will cost you anywhere between £30 GBP (~$48 USD) and £100 GBP (~$160 USD) — you can choose any increment of £10 between those values. Purchasing the Mega Supporter license gets you free lifetime updates, no matter what version.

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The thing I really like about Alfred is that it provides an interface to everything on my Mac and on the web: I can run programs, search favorite sites, find and browse files. It’s powerful but also very simple. The complexity and advanced functionality is there when I need it but for running something quickly or a fast Google search, that functionality never gets in my way. These layers of functionality are really well implemented. And the app is completely hidden until I call on it.

For example, a shortcut of option+space brings up an empty Alfred window. A couple of letters typed into the window offers me some simple web search options:

Even the results are easily accessed with unique key combinations for choosing among them.

If I’m looking for local files a “find” command changes the search:

It learns which items I access frequently so they appear in the search results ahead of others. For example, Text Wrangler, my editor of choice, now appears ahead of TextEdit because it is the one that is used more frequently. These little details make the program a joy to use.

I really like the way that I can use Alfred as a window to web searches, especially for frequently searched sites. It’s set up for the biggies like Google, Wikipedia, Amazon and Twitter and such, but I can add other options to the mix as well, like my CRM app.

One of my new favorite features that I just discovered is the ability to search by Spotlight Comments. By using consistent tagging there I can group like applications together by searching by tag. For example, a search for media could display iTunes, Rdio, last.fm and all the various players I have on my system.

While Alfred itself is free, there is the option to add a Powerpack option to it for £12 ($19). The Powerpack adds some great features like direct file system navigation, browsing from within the launcher window and the ability to perform actions on files beyond opening.

The additional features of the Powerpack are handy but even the free version is quite functional and well worth checking out. Alfred is a free download for Mac OS X 10.5+, while the optional Powerpack can be bought at any time through the application or from the web site.

Alfred is the doorway to my Mac. What do you use for launching and searching on your computer?

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