Head To Head: Siri Vs. Google Voice Actions

http://searchengineland.com/head-to-head-siri-vs-google-voice-actions-96998

by dell9000 • 15 years ago

42 19 15 years ago

millions• 15 years ago

Has anybody seen a comparison of actual speech-to-text capabilities, preferably done in a proper manner (using speech recordings of different accents, etc)?

YooLi• 15 years ago

What about asking Google Voice Actions to send a text message, read your messages, when the birthday of a contact is, set a timer for you, remind you of something when you leave home, play a track, etc. They compared only questions Google VA could handle and left out 90% of what makes Siri awesome.

tadfisher• 15 years ago

You can send text messages, set alarms, and play music via Voice Actions, but it's not as polished as the Siri experience. I can't get it to read emails or SMS for me, and geofencing is nonexistent.

notatoad2• 15 years ago

using 2.3.4, i can't _really_ play music. i can say "play the beatles" and it will offer to search youtube for the beatles, but it won't search the music on my phone.

nooneelse2• 15 years ago

> You just say "search the web for..." and Siri initiates a Google search.

How disappointingly verbose. Does Siri not know that "google" is a verb?

mcav• 15 years ago

You can just say "Search for ______."

siglesias• 15 years ago

It does.

nooneelse2• 15 years ago

Cool. Thanks for checking. It would have been a silly omission had it not. I guess the author is the needlessly wordy one.

mikeash• 15 years ago

I just tried it, worked fine....

po2• 15 years ago

Siri's personality does one thing Google Voice Actions doesn't: develop an emotional connection with the user. I fully expect Siri to impact the number of people switching to Android. It would be less like switching phones and more like firing you personal assistant.

akmiller• 15 years ago

I guess it depends on what type of person you are. I'd rather not pretend to be having a real conversation with an electronic device and would rather give simple voice commands when needed.

That being said the more conversational style, with the emotional connection as you put it, could easily be added into the Google Voice actions as well I'm sure.

nilchameleons• 15 years ago

It's been my experience that Siri responds equally well to curt commands as to colloquial phrases, which is how voice commands should be (and how voice commands to real assistants work, somewhat.)

gbog3• 15 years ago

The future will tell, but I would bet that all those human-like interfaces are gadgets deemed to stay gadgets. Would you voice drive a car? a plane? machines interface can use metaphors, like desktop and folders, but those are just metaphors, ie a way to mentalize a tool, which is much better controlled through direct orders than "conversation".

po2• 15 years ago

I 'voice drive' cars all the time. I get into the taxi and say "take me to the airport". The only reason I care about the steering wheel is that robots aren't very good at driving yet. Someday, if robotic technology improves to the point where it is as safe(or safer), that's the way we will do it 90% of the time.

Of course, there will always be cars with steering wheels, just like we still have horse carriages. You can still paint with a brush even though photoshop and illustrator exists. If there were a siri-controlled TV (and there probably will be) it will still come with a remote control.

tensor• 15 years ago

I think it worth pointing out that Siri's achievements beyond google should be credited to the startup that created it. It's popular and fun to give Apple all the credit, and they made a great purchase.

But this is not a story about Apple the innovator. This is a story about a startup that won big. That they were bought by Apple and integrated instead of remaining a strong new company is more a reflection on the current state of the software business than anything else.

All credit to the Siri team and the projects that it is derived from. The funding for this includes government (DARPA) as well as several academic institutes:

"Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Rochester, the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Oregon State University, the University of Southern California, and Stanford University, as well as from SRI."

References:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_stealth_startu...

https://pal.sri.com/Plone/framework

Head To Head: Siri Vs. Google Voice Actions

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