Google’s voice search is now faster and more accurate, especially in noisy environments.
In an announcement made this week, Google said it’s added new computational models that “are more accurate, robust to noise, and faster to respond to voice search queries models.” Apparently voice search within the Google app is 300-500 milliseconds faster than before.
If you check out Google’s announcement it details the specific improvements they’ve made to their computational models. Your brain will probably end up hurting trying to understand this unless you’ve got a PhD in computer science. Certainly mine did! Clearly this is complex stuff involving some very clever people.
From a user’s perspective the improvements are noticeable. Using Google voice search on a mobile phone is amazingly fast & accurate. It copes well with natural speech. No-need-to-speak-in-a-slow-robotic-voice. And, even if you correct yourself, it seems to handle this.
It’s not surprising Google is continually improving its voice search capability, given the huge growth in smartphones and the fact there’s now more internet access from mobile devices than desktops. Using voice search is certainly a great deal easier to use than keying in a search query on the comparatively small screen of a phone. This explains why so many people, including iPhone users, have the Google Search App on the home-screen of their phones. A ComScore report released last week that analyses the popularity, usage and location of mobile apps reveals Google Search is the 4th most popular app & growing faster than Facebook.
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Why should you care?
With the improvements in voice search it’s likely that more people will use this when searching Google for the services or products your business provides. Mobile search queries will increasingly reflect natural language and the number of words used grow. Keyword strategies will need to accommodate this.
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Mark is a Partner and Senior Consultant at SureFire which he founded back in 2002. Prior to establishing SureFire he worked for KPMG Consulting. Today Mark heads up SEO, embracing the challenges that can come with complex website implementations. Outside of work, his interests beyond his family are running, snowsports, diving and fishing (badly).
