Google’s voice search (on iOS) on the left; Siri on the right
After the hype of Siri, Google’s claim that “its most advanced voice search has arrived on iOS” seems kind of a yawner.
However, my first experiences with Siri were so lackluster that I hadn’t used it since the iPhone 4S debut except to goof around (“Is there a God?“). My first question through Google’s voice search though was so amazingly fast and accurate that I see myself actually using it day-to-day.
I asked both Google and Siri, “How much damage did Hurricane Sandy do?”
Google heard it as “How much damage did Hurricane Sandy too?” and returned with official Hurricane Sandy emergency info and latest news stories literally as I stopped talking.
Siri took nearly five seconds to register my question as “How much damage did hurricane you do” and responded with hockey league standings for the Hurricanes team.
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Google voice search is to Siri as Google Maps is to Apple Maps. And while some might argue that Apple’s data-weak, inaccurate maps are still more stylish, the Google search app is executed far more beautifully than Siri. That, plus the immense voice data that Google has been collecting, plus…well, Google’s search expertise…makes it hard to see how Apple can even compete here.
Check out the announcement on Google’s blog.
Interesting and nice to see that Android seems to get better and better all the time. I am only hoping that Google Voice will start working with other languages like Danish, since I am from Denmark.
Dan,
I don’t think that Siri was meant to be serious. It is for humor only, and it is very good at that. You were lucky you even got Siri to respond at all, because half the time, for me, it doesn’t. And half of the time it does, it doesn’t even “get” the core subject of my question. What I’m saying is that the fact that it got hurricane at all, is almost a miracle. And like I say, it is for humor, and I think that its answer was funny. Ask John Malkovic. In short, Siri is a joke. Makes maps disaster look like an afternoon downtonabbypour.
Siri took me to the same Google page of results you found using Google voice search. It’d be helpful for a number of volunteers to conduct blind tests of a dozen test phrases. In any case, I’ll give Google voice search a try.
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