[RyanCooley]

I believe this is less about the input method (in this case, speech) than it is about situational awareness. The reason the Star Trek computer is perceived as so smart is because of the thousands of sensors it employs inside and outside of the ship, the other seemingly limitless data sources it has to pull from, and of course the ability to parse all of that data into something usable when needed.

As a member of the Enterprise, Star Trek's computer knows your vital signs, your medical history, your food preferences (replicator), your entertainment preferences (holodeck), your sleep patterns, your work history, your travel history, your current whereabouts (combadge), your relationships (Riker's combadge sure does spend a lot of time around Troi's combadge), your psychological status (log entries), etc.

This is where Google and many others are headed, particularly with the advent of wearable computing. If only we could rest assured that their intent is as ostensibly benevolent and altruistic as that of the Enterprise computer.