Andrew
Ng, the former Chief Scientist at Baidu, states that 50% of
all web searches will be triggered by voice searches by 2020. But
what does voice search even mean? And why is it causing a revolution
in the tech industry? If you want to find the answers to these
questions, read on.
What Is Voice Search?
Voice
search is somewhat of a new phenomenon, allowing users to use their
voice when giving commands. While voice recognition may not have been
used for Internet searches until a few years back, it has been in use
for quite a while now. If you have ever worked with a program that
has the speech-to-text feature or the voice dialing feature, you have
already used the voice search technology. Even programs like Google
Assistant, Alexa, Siri, and Cortana use the voice search technology
in order to carry out orders.
For
one, you can optimize your websites to be a better fit for voice
searches. Brands are trying to design their interfaces in a way which
would be compatible with voice search nowadays. This would help them
get more traffic.
How and what do Consumers Use Voice Search?
A
recent survey talks about how popular voice searches actually are.
Both teens and adults seem to use it, with over 43% of teens using it
to call someone and over 40% of adults using it to ask for
directions. In fact, using voice search to ask for directions seems
to be the more popular way today of how we use the function. However,
many use it for other things as well, from playing a song to checking
the time.
According
to Strategy Analytics, there was almost a 200%
rise YOY in smart speaker shipments during
the Q3 2018. Records show that Amazon was behind shipping most of
these devices, but Google was also a close competitor. This shows
that users are slowly understanding the benefits of investing in
devices which can perceive user-friendly interactions and perform
tasks according to the orders given. TheeDesign found that nearly a
third of the 3.5 billion searches which are being made on Google
daily are already voice searches. The numbers will definitely go up
soon.
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more on Future
of Search Marketing