Study: Siri Beats Google Now, Cortana In Performance & Overall Satisfaction

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Contrary to some industry perceptions, Siri is apparently not the virtual assistant laggard, but the leader. That’s according to a hands-on user study conducted by Expert Exchange.

Siri beat Google (Now) and Cortana in overall user satisfaction and across a number of specific tasks. Amazon Echo was not part of the study.

While the number of people involved in the study isn’t clear from the discussion, here’s the methodology, as described by Expert Exchange:

We ran a survey asking participants to perform a list of commands on their smartphones. With these findings, the virtual assistants were ranked based on accuracy (whether or not the virtual assistant properly responded) and satisfaction (how happy users were with the way the virtual assistant performed the command) All participants were randomly selected, and users were required to use Cortana, Siri or Google Now.

Participants asked a variety of factual questions, conducted searches and offered commands to the three virtual assistants. Accuracy was measured, and so was user satisfaction. In almost all categories, Siri won.

However, in a study conducted a year ago by Stone Temple Consulting, Google Now emerged as the victor, with Siri in second place.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.