Computer and Library Learning (Archived)

Amit
Singhal of Google in his blog post “Building
the search engine of the future, one baby step at a time” outlined three
key points of working towards a “Star Trek-like” computer able to answer any
question. The third point, “3. Understanding your intent”, offers a combination
of Google Voice Search, speech recognition capability, a degree of
understanding of natural language, and the Google Knowledge Graph. The intent
is to deliver better interpretation of the user’s questions and offer the user
verbal answers constructed in full sentences on an Android phone (and on an
iPad or an iPhone (iOS Version 4.2+) in the near future). Mr. Singhal has
acknowledged the small steps taken thus far in this initiative. However,
various media sources have sensed clearly that Google is taking on its Apple
competitor, Siri, Apple’s
“intelligent
personal assistant” used on an iPhone 4S. So what do some of the critics
have to say?

JR
Raphael, writing on Computerworld’s
blog Android Power,
acknowledged Google’s primary
raison d'être as a search company for wishing to expand Google Voice Search
to Apple’s iOS products. However, Mr. Raphael also took Google to task for not
offering broader availability to Android customers themselves at the same time.
He also made an important distinction between Google’s Voice Search and Google
Now (only available on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (available
on only 0.8% of all Android devices) which is
based on offering relevant account and location information even before one
requests it). Daniel Howley, writing for the Christian
Science Monitor, tested Siri,
Google Voice Search, and Samsung S Voice (available on the Galaxy S 3) on
answering 10 pre-selected questions with Siri winning
on 5 questions, Google Voice Search succeeding on 4 questions, and S Voice
on the remaining one.

Anthony
Kosner, writing for Forbes, described
Siri’s problem as lacking
contextual data which Apple had to purchase from different sources
including Yelp, Yahoo, Wolfram Alpha, and even Google. Steve Kovach, of Business Insider, noted that Siri
has trouble with basic searches owing to its reliance on other sources for
information. In fact, according to a Piper Jaffray study conducted by Gene
Munster, Google
provided 60% of the answers for Siri (divided into 100% of navigation
results, 61% of information results, 48% of commercial results and 42% of local
results) with 20% coming from Yelp (primarily local and commercial results at
51% each), 14% from Wolfram Alpha (including 34% of total information results),
Yahoo at 4% and Wikipedia at 2%. Google’s share of Siri’s answers are expected
to drop to about 48% with Apple’s launch of iOS 6 expected to capture more
navigation, sports and movie questions. Anthony Kosner noted that Google Voice
Search only searches the internet at present so cannot be considered a personal
assistant like Siri. However, expanding the search app’s universe on Android
and iOS to include Gmail and other data could make Google competitive with
Apple’s Siri.

On
the other hand, Simon Penson, writing on Search
Engine Watch, offers the argument that Google
is afraid of being displaced in the search realm by voice-activated search
engines powered by Wolfram Alpha through Siri with an emphasis on semantic
search wherein the meaning of concepts and ideas is preeminent. Google’s
Penguin algorithm has tweaked the emphasis on page rankings by popularity by
introducing a degree of relevance into the equation.

On August 17, 2012, Google upped the ante and announced
that its Voice Search had been expanded
to 13 additional languages representing another 100 million people, viz.:
Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, European Portuguese, Finnish, Galician, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, and Swedish. At present, Siri
works in only
English, French, German and Japanese.

How
does Google Now on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean devices stack up against Siri?
Anthony Kosner notes that the
combination of the Knowledge Graph with one’s own data is moving in the
direction of resembling a personal assistant. Unlike Siri, Google Now will not
adjust one’s schedule but will draw upon relevant information sources in email,
on electronic calendars etc. and provide transportation information, currency
conversions, and weather information etc. on mobile devices including a Google
Nexus 7 tablet.

The debate between Siri and Google Voice Search and
Google Now and its outcome have only just begun. Of
course, will Apple even allow Google to place its apps in Apple’s app store?
Time will tell…