05 Jul War Of The Voice Assistants: Siri has some ‘Siri-ous’ Competition
It seems as though Siri’s upgrade in iOS6 may not be enough to win the Voice Search Game against Google’s newest OS Jelly Bean.
June has been a busy month in Silicon Valley, with Google announcing their new, upgraded version of Ice Cream Sandwich (Jelly Bean 4.1) and Apple revealing its newest OS (iOS6). Both of these announcements have revealed upgrades to the voice search/command features, but which one is the king of (understanding) the spoken word?
Faster and More Accurate
Originally reported on Fortune, a test conducted by Gene Muster, a technology analyst from Piper Jaffray, put Google Voice Search and Siri head to head. The test included 800 questions asked to both Google Voice Search and Siri in two different settings: the first a quiet environment and the other a very busy location with lots of street traffic noise.
The results are as follows:
[wpcol_3fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]Quiet Environment[/wpcol_3fifth] [wpcol_1fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]Google Voice Search[/wpcol_1fifth] [wpcol_1fifth_end id=”” class=”” style=””]Siri[/wpcol_1fifth_end]
[wpcol_3fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]Understood Questions[/wpcol_3fifth] [wpcol_1fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]100%[/wpcol_1fifth] [wpcol_1fifth_end id=”” class=”” style=””]89%[/wpcol_1fifth_end]
[wpcol_3fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]Accuracy Of Answers[/wpcol_3fifth] [wpcol_1fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]86%[/wpcol_1fifth] [wpcol_1fifth_end id=”” class=”” style=””]68%[/wpcol_1fifth_end]
[wpcol_3fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]Noisy Environment[/wpcol_3fifth] [wpcol_1fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]Google Voice Search[/wpcol_1fifth] [wpcol_1fifth_end id=”” class=”” style=””]Siri[/wpcol_1fifth_end]
[wpcol_3fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]Understood Questions[/wpcol_3fifth] [wpcol_1fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]100%[/wpcol_1fifth] [wpcol_1fifth_end id=”” class=”” style=””]83%[/wpcol_1fifth_end]
[wpcol_3fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]Accuracy Of Answers[/wpcol_3fifth] [wpcol_1fifth id=”” class=”” style=””]86%[/wpcol_1fifth] [wpcol_1fifth_end id=”” class=”” style=””]63%[/wpcol_1fifth_end]
As Munster writes “In order to become a viable mobile search alternative, Siri must match or surpass Google’s accuracy of B+ and move from a grade D to a B or higher.”
He estimates that Siri is more than two years behind Google in its learning curve, but he’s optimistic: “With the iOS 6 release in the fall, we expect Siri to improve meaningfully while reducing its reliance on Google from 60% to 48%.”
Another test yields similar results through a study conducted by tech website TechnoBuffalo, which pits Siri on a beta version of iOS6 with a beta version of 4.1 Jelly Bean. When asked a series of questions such as what the weather is like, sport scores and Kobe Bryant’s height, Jelly Bean retrieved results faster and as stated by the presenter it has a much less robotic voice than Siri. You can watch the test below.
But Is It A Clean Win?
In contrast to the aforementioned tests, another test done by PcWorld shows the respective strengths and weaknesses of each Voice Assistant, with no clear overall winner.
Siri was strong when it came to searching for places to eat and playing music, whereas Google Voice Search excelled at answering questions relating to navigation and maps. With most queries Google Voice Search was faster, however Siri made up for its slower speed with higher quality content in some cases.
Google Voice Search definitely retains the advantage of being tightly integrated with Google Search, Maps and Navigation, while Siri benefits from its integration with Yelp. However, while both of these voice assistants shine in particular areas, it is clear voice assistants in general still have a long way to go until they become sophisticated enough to be the main form of interaction between users and their smartphones.
To see the test in action view the video below: