by by Lissa Steffen (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram)
Confession: I didn’t know who was playing in Super Bowl 2017 until the day of, and I had to ask Siri.
That’s the new norm, too. Since it’s introduction in 2014, voice search is the next up and coming method of searching. With technology such as Alexa (Amazon), Cortana (Microsoft), in addition to Siri (Apple) and Google available on our mobile devices, voice search is doing nothing but becoming more popular.
According to a study conducted by Google, voice search is now used by more than 55% of teens and more than 41% of adults in the United States. Google also found that through their Google Android app, one in five searches are voice searches. It’s the ultimate tool for those of us who love to multitask and need a personal assistant. Mostly, we are more likely to use voice search just because of it’s cool factor and we believe it’s “the future”.
Voice search is changing the dynamic to Googling. Rather than using a few key words that relate to our search, voice search is more conversational and focuses on a chain of words or phrases. Specifically, it’s focusing on what we’re actually doing when we’re using voice search: asking questions. That’s right, the “who”, “what”, “when” and “where”s. Voice search technology is focusing on those specific words that we start our questions with to better find the answer we’re looking for. Common sense to us, right? Okay, but computers are doing it now.
So now, what’s next?
Moving forward, SEO executives are looking into incorporating artificial intelligence technology into voice search. The goal is to develop voice search into an interactive technology and make it more user friendly. These AI’s are also working on detecting emotion in the tone of our voices and possibly reading emotion from our faces. The goal is to increase the functionality of voice search and help SEO’s give us more accurate results to our searches.
It’s happening, guys. Our own personal Jarvis could be an actual thing. Let’s just hope our generation doesn’t start falling in love with our devices (Looking at you, Joaquin Phoenix).
or, like Abby said, have them turn on us like other smart technology did in a favorite Disney Channel Original Movie.
I loved this post. Totally not because you mentioned my tweet in the bottom but I find this popular technology fascinating and scary. The statistic you mentioned that “a voice search is now used by more than 55% of teens and more than 41% of adults in the United States,” is a bigger number than I thought. I have enjoyed reading the hilarious stories of families watching a movie and Alexa answering back after picking up key words or even catching criminals in a house robbery. Technology is rapidly changing and voice systems seem to be coming into the future with us. It was a huge dream of mine after watching Disney Channel’s Smart House that it would become a legit thing. Now after several years has passed, I can see this probably happening in the future or some sort of altered version of that. The abilities it will be able to possess will be interesting but I can see it being helpful and possibly even needed in the future.
I also find the statistic stating the percentages of voice searches larger than I imagined and very interesting. This is because in my personal experience I have always found it easier to search my question manually, for lack of better words, seeing as how my voice searches almost always never result in the answer I’m in need of. Also, because Siri does not simply tell you the answer like Alexa does and instead links you to an article from google or elsewhere online, I believe voice searches still have necessary developmental tweaks in the near future before the world truly starts using their voice to search for answers rather than simply searching for the answer themselves.