General :: Google Now Won't Activate By Voice - Galaxy S3

I let Google Now set itself up on my S3 about 2-3 months ago. I thought it was kinda cool but I didn't feel like messing with it too much at the time. I did, however, see the "Search, or say Google" feature. I spoke the word "Google" and sure enough it activated, and I spoke the generic, "Where is the nearest restaurant?" just to see how it worked, and several restaurants were shown. Pretty cool, but like I said, I wasn't in the mood to dig into it much deeper at that time.

Fast forward to last night. I had some time on my hands and thought I would mess with this "Google Now" thing I've been reading about more and more. I add the Google Now widget to one of my pages easily enough. Then I tap it to get it started, and I see the familiar, "Search, or say Google" and I'm ready to play. "Google", I say. Nothing. I repeat it... "Google". Still nothing. I tap the microphone, and the screen changes to the Google logo in the upper left, a flashing red microphone in the upper right, and the words "Speak now" show up in the middle of the screen. Again, I do the "Where is the nearest restaurant?", just like I did before, and I wait for its response. The text from my question shows up on screen, but the mic in the upper right is still pulsing. I wait for about 30 seconds and finally tap the mic icon, thinking that will activate the question. No... it just goes back to the previous screen. I try this several times with different questions, each getting a bit more prophanity-laced as I'm losing patience. Finally I give up.

Then I see if my wife has Google Now activated on her Note 2. She doesn't, so I grab the widget and throw it on an empty screen. I tap the widget and Google Now starts. I see the "Search, or say Google", so I sternly say, "Google". It activates, I ask for the nearest restaurants, and it shows me several in the area. Why won't it work on my S3 anymore? I check the settings for voice and see Hotword detection is checked. I compare my settings to the settings on my wife's Note 2 and they're identical.