Since I purchased my Droid Maxx a few weeks ago, I’ve been using Google’s Voice Search a lot more often. I find it incredibly useful in the car, as I can get quick sports scores and traffic info without having to touch the phone.
Over the past year, Google’s voice search has improved dramatically. Google’s translation of your speech into text has always been solid, but recently it’s learned quite a bit more about how to interpret your requests. One of the neat things Google has recently added is conversational search. This is where you can ask it one question, such as “who is the president of the united states?”, receive your answer, then ask a follow up question such as “how old is he?” and Google will keep up with the conversation. Apple’s Siri already excels at conversational search, and Google is finally getting there.
Here is a great video that shows some of what the latest version of Google Voice Search can do:
Ultimately, it’s very similar to Siri. I find that Google’s voice search is a bit more powerful and accurate, but Siri injects some impressive personality into her interactions. They’re both very helpful and only getting better.
Be “responsive”
As people increasingly use voice interactions with their phones, it’ll continue to make mobile web browsing even more prevalent. Most of our client’s websites are seeing roughly 30% of their pageviews come from mobile devices, and that number is steadily increasing. With that in mind, you need to make sure your site performs well on mobile devices, ideally via mobile responsive design.
If you’re unable to make the switch to a mobile responsive design right now, at least be sure to check out your site on mobile devices from time to time and use products such as WP Touch to help optimize the experience for mobile users.
Do you use Siri or Google Voice Search very often?
