Siri

Siri is a virtual assistant that’s part of Apple’s operating systems. Our Apple Siri section provides news, trends and how-to’s marketers need to stay ahead of the competition.

Written by the experts at Search Engine Land, check back daily for the freshest content on Apple Siri marketing tactics and strategies to help you implement successful campaigns.

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Microsoft

Cortana Expands To Other Markets, Becomes “Xiao Na” In China

There’s increasing evidence that Microsoft’s personal assistant Cortana is being positioned as a key differentiator vs. Android and iPhones. A new TV commercial (below) purports to compare Cortana to Siri, with a mock Siri voice saying “I can’t do that” a number of times. This morning Microsoft announced new geographies and new features for Cortana […]

Bing

Is Microsoft Blocking Google Search On New Lumia Phones?

According to a story appearing in The Verge yesterday, Microsoft is not allowing users to set Google as the default search engine for mobile web browsing on new Lumia 8.1 devices (630 and 930). As the article points out, the search button on the handset uses Bing and cannot be switched. I reached out to […]

Apple

Bing & Cortana To Get Academic Search Integration At A Whole New Level

Microsoft shared details about their future plans for deeply integrating academic data/search into the Bing search engine. Starting this Fall, Microsoft said they “will be able to point the way to a wealth of information from the academic community.” Microsoft explained that currently Cortana, Microsoft’s version of Google Now and Apple Siri, is powered by […]

Apple

SearchCap: Bing + Twitter, Foursquare Fees & Okay Google

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Ups Its Twitter Game: Rolls Out Hashtag & Twitter Handle Search Features Starting this week, Bing users are going to see even more Twitter content in search results. As a […]

Apple

WATCH: Microsoft’s Cortana Keynote At SMX Advanced 2014

You’re probably pretty familiar already with Siri and Google Now, the personal assistant-type technologies from Apple and Google, respectively. Each has its own approach to the idea of providing information and answering questions without needing a traditional search box and search query. You may be a bit less familiar with Cortana — she’s Microsoft’s upcoming […]

Apple

Microsoft: No Plans For Ads In Cortana Yet; Debating Bringing To Androids & iOS

It’s far too early to consider monetizing Cortana, Microsoft’s new virtual personal assistant, but the company is already thinking about how to scale her across different devices, platforms and around the world. Those were two of the key points from Microsoft’s keynote conversation Thursday morning at our SMX Advanced conference in Seattle. Marcus Ash, a […]

Apple

Microsoft’s SMX Advanced Keynote: Cortana Makes People More Likely To Search

We’re ready to get started on day two of SMX Advanced, and today’s opening keynote promises to talk about the future of search. Microsoft’s Marcus Ash (Group Program Manager for Windows Phone) and Rob Chambers (Group Program Manager, Applications and Services Group) will be here to talk about Cortana, the company’s recently launched virtual assistant […]

Apple

At Five Years Old, Bing Has Come Far Yet Has More To Grow

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has turned five this week. There are good reasons for some birthday celebrations at Microsoft. The company has created a solid competitor to Google, grown its market share and created a search platform for other Microsoft products. But when it comes to mindshare, Bing is still far behind rivaling Google as […]

Apple

Google To Bring Always-On, “Eyes Free” Search To App

One of the most interesting and talked about features in the Motorola-made Moto X is always-on voice search. Activated by saying “OK, Google,” it permits totally hands-free search. Unfortunately this standout feature didn’t sell enough handsets to keep open Moto’s much-touted Texas smartphone factory. The “hotword” OK Google also currently works on the Google search app […]

Apple

Videos: Comparing Cortana & Siri & Google Now

Today, Microsoft released the developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 and with that, the ability to play with a preview of Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Apple Siri and Google Now. Both Gizmodo and CNet have released video demos comparing Cortana & Siri & Google Now. I like the Gizmodo comparison a little more, so we […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 3, 2014

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Fixing Reverse DNS GoogleBot Verification Google has confirmed that there are some GoogleBot useragent spiders not properly passing verification protocol. Savvy webmasters noticed that GoogleBot over the .249.70.0 /24 IP […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 2, 2014

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s Matt Cutts: We Can Improve Our Algorithms For Authorities On Topics In an interesting video released by Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam, Matt answers the question on how Google […]

Apple

Part Siri, Part Google Now: Microsoft Announces “Cortana” Virtual Assistant

Rumored for months, Microsoft has formally announced its answer to Apple’s Siri and Google’s Voice Search/Google Now: Cortana. Danny Sullivan is at the Microsoft Build Conference and live blogging it. Cortana appears to be sassy like Siri and can perform many of the functions that Google Now does (providing reminders and notifications regarding dates, meetings and […]

Google algorithm updates

SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 4, 2014

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: New Video Shows Microsoft “Assistant” Cortana In Action Microsoft will be introducing its Siri and Google Now/Voice competitor Cortana with Windows 8.1 in April. The new “intelligent assistant” will eventually be […]

Bing

New Video Shows Microsoft “Assistant” Cortana In Action

Microsoft will be introducing its Siri and Google Now/Voice competitor Cortana with Windows 8.1 in April. The new “intelligent assistant” will eventually be available cross-platform, although launching on Lumia Phones. The name Cortana comes from a character in the game Halo. It was originally thought that Cortana would look like her character in the game […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 20, 2014

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yandex Reports Revenue Up 37% In Q4, Ad Network Revenue Nearly Doubles Russian search giant Yandex reported a strong Q4 2013 today, with overall revenue up 37 percent from Q4 2012 […]

SEO

Yahoo Gives $10 Million To Help Develop Next-Gen Siri And Better “Contextual Search”

Several years ago, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, as a then Google employee, spoke about the perfect search engine that could anticipate your needs and which wouldn’t require any keywords to deliver results. We’re rapidly moving toward searchless content discovery with Siri, Google Now, IBM’s Watson, Nuance’s Nina, Expect Labs and other “intelligent assistants.” Artificial intelligence-powered intelligent assistants […]

Apple

Googling The Weather: From 20% Project To Sophisticated Query Analysis

Millions of us have asked Google to play weatherperson. In order to get an answer to one of our oldest and most basic questions, we type a variety of words and numbers — city names, neighborhoods and ZIP codes, plus words like “weather,” “forecast” or maybe “temperature” — into the Google search box, and Google […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 18, 2013

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yandex Does What Google Can’t: Provides Bitcoin Exchange Rates How much is one US dollar in UK pounds? Google will give you a direct answer to that and many other currencies […]

Google algorithm updates

SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 11, 2013

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Analyst Gives Both Google Now And Siri A “C+” Piper Jaffray financial analyst Gene Munster performed his now annual comparison of Google Voice Search/Google Now and Siri to determine which one […]

Apple

Analyst Gives Both Google Now And Siri A “C+”

Piper Jaffray financial analyst Gene Munster performed his now annual comparison of Google Voice Search/Google Now and Siri to determine which one performed better. Using 800 queries under a variety of “controlled” and “uncontrolled” conditions, Munster and his team tested and compared the two “assistants.” Munster gave Google Voice Search/Now a C+, an improvement from the […]

Bing

Bing Revamps Android App To Match iPhone Features

Microsoft’s Bing and Google are pursuing very similar strategies with their mobile apps. Google’s search app for iOS is essentially a browser and gateway to other Google apps and services. The same is true for Bing on iOS and Android. Earlier this week Bing refreshed its Android app to make its UI and design consistent […]

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