How to optimize video for AI-powered search
Learn which video signals AI relies on, and how visuals, audio, transcripts, and schema shape search visibility and brand accuracy.
Topic: Speech recognition
New Microsoft Bing Chat rolling out to mobile devices with voice search
This begins to roll out to some users on Bing and Edge mobile apps on iOS and Android.
Google Search testing search in video
Google announced this as a pilot feature in India, but some in the U.S. are also seeing it.
Spotify commits to brand safety for podcasts
This is Spotify's latest attempt at keeping the platform a safe environment for creators, listeners and advertisers.
Google’s voice AI resonates in new Pixel Recorder app
Recorder identifies words, sounds, and produces a searchable transcript, even without an internet connection.
Study: 48% of consumers use voice assistants for general web search
Despite concerns about accuracy and privacy, the Adobe survey presents a mostly positive outlook for voice and virtual assistants.
Google Assistant moves from the cloud to the phone, now 10X faster
The faster Assistant will be available on Pixel phones 'later this year' and could become a major competitive advantage.
Voice gaining on mobile browser as top choice for smartphone-based search
Since 2018, voice has become more users' first choice for mobile search.
Optimizing content for voice search and virtual assistants for a competitive edge
Learn from SMX West presenters about specific tactics SEOs can use to create content for voice and how to roll out voice search campaigns.
Ask the SMXpert – Optimizing for voice search & virtual assistants
SMXpert Upasna Gautam continues the Q&A from SMX Advanced and discusses a number of topics including creating the right content, using homonyms, stressed words and quality metrics when optimizing for voice search.
Google adds 30 languages to voice search & makes it possible to use emojis with voice typing
Included among the new languages are Swahili and Amharic, two of the most popular African languages.
Google Home can now support and distinguish up to six separate users
The new feature, which rolls out today, enables multiple users to receive personalized results.
SMX West keynote: Google talks about ranking, more in Google Assistant
Google's Jason Douglas shares what marketers and developers need to know about Actions on Google.
Gboard adds new languages, voice typing, new emojis & doodles
Google has upgraded their iOS keyboard extension to support voice dialing and 15 more languages.
Google Voice Search In Google App Now 300 Milliseconds Faster
Google makes voice search feel "blazingly fast" and improves voice accuracy within the Google App.
How Google & Other Voice Search Engines Focus In On Your Voice
Google says error rates on voice searches are only 8%, down from 25% just a few years ago.
Cortana Expands The Boundaries Of Search, But Will It Eventually Eat It Too?
Cortana, the personal digital assistant, has become a key part of Microsoft's competitive strategy.
Google Translate App Gets Improved Picture & Conversational Translation
The new Google Translate app for iOS and Android brings real-time camera based translation and conversational translation to iOS.
Report: Google Translate To Provide Real-Time Translation Via App
Google Translate to soon offer real-time translation between two people, much like the Microsoft Skype translation demo we saw months ago.
Teens Embrace Voice Search, Many Adults Feel “Like Geeks” Using It
According to a voice search study commissioned by Google, the most smartphone-obsessed teens are using voice search every day. However many adults feel self-conscious or embarrassed when they talk to their smartphones. The study found that 45 percent of US adults said they felt “like a geek” talking to their phones. (Yet this is what […]
Google’s Search App Is Now Truly Multilingual
Around the world, millions of people are multilingual or partly so. In the U.S., census data reflect that 20 percent of the population speaks more than one language at home (though this really only captures immigrants). But in what I imagine is something of a speech recognition breakthrough, Google’s search app can now understand commands […]
Microsoft Translation In Real-Time Over Skype
Last night at the Re/Code Conference, Microsoft demoed real-time translation over Skype. Imagine talking to someone over a video call, they spoke a completely different language than you did, but the technology did real time translation as you spoke. Microsoft has a beta they demonstrated last night at the conference. Gurdeep Pall, Corporate Vice President […]
Rumor: Google To Broadly Expand “OK Google” Voice Actions
According to Android Police, Google is preparing a broad expansion of voice actions beyond its search app. The report describes this initiative as “OK Google Everywhere.” Voice actions would extend to other Google apps (e.g., mail, photos) and would also be contextually specific, taking on Google Now-like capabilities. Currently queries and some app-related commands can […]
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 […]
Google Search App Now Answers Your Questions In French, German Or Japanese
Google announced an international upgrade to the Google Search App, which enables the voice response answers that work currently in English to also work in French, German or Japanese. So not only can you ask your question in English, French, German or Japanese or other languages via voice search — Google will respond to that […]
Google Enables “OK Google” Hands-Free Voice Search On PCs
Through a Chrome browser extension users can now invoke the hotword (or hot phrase) “OK Google” to initiate hands-free searches on the PC. Voice search on Chrome was possible before but you needed to manually select the microphone. After the browser extension is installed you simply need to say “OK Google,” pause briefly and speak […]
OK Google: How About OK Jarvis, OK Android, Or Even OK Barry
Android Community noticed that some other phrases outside of “OK Google” trigger the voice search on the latest Android operating system, KitKat. So I tested this on my Nexus 5 and discovered that OK Google has alternatives. I tested the following phrases that seemed to work: OK Glass OK Jarvis OK Android OK Barry Now, […]
Samsung, Intel Invest In “Anticipatory Search” Startup Expect Labs
Expect Labs, which is a small startup in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a very impressive list of investors. Today the company announced a new funding round, though the figures weren’t disclosed. Investors are the venture or investment arms of Intel, Samsung and Telefonica. Telefonica is the world’s fourth largest telco and owns mobile […]
CheapAir.com Mobile Voice Search Not Very “Natural”
Several sites are touting a new voice search feature on the CheapAir.com app. The company says that it uses the iPhone’s own speech recognition capability on the front end, but then does some semantic parsing on its side to deliver flight search results. I tried the app and found that its voice search fell quite […]
Growth Of Mobile Search “Like Seeing My Second Child Grow” Says Google Search Chief At #SXSW
The growth of mobile search is like seeing a second child grow up. SEO isn’t bull. The knowledge graph, speech recognition and natural language are search’s biggest challenges. And, he really, really likes Star Trek. That’s just some of what the head of Google’s search efforts, Amit Singhal, shared when talking at SXSW today. Singhal is […]
Google Adds 13 New Languages To Voice Search
Google announced they have added 13 new languages to Google Voice Search. The new languages include Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, European Portuguese, Finnish, Galician, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak and Swedish. This brings the total tally of supported languages in Google Voice Search up to 42 languages supported. Google says that adding these 13 new […]
Nuance’s Nina Is Siri For Enterprise Customer Service
Although there were so-called “virtual assistants” before Siri, consumers had only limited experience with them and may not have even realized what they were dealing with at the time. United Airlines’ “virtual agent” Alex is one such automated assistant, though it doesn’t use speech and currently doesn’t work on mobile devices. At least a dozen […]
Google’s “Voice Assistant” Not Quite Siri-Smart But Most People Won’t Notice
At Google I/O this week Google introduced spoken search results, which mimic Siri’s functionality on the iPhone. Siri had been a major point of differentiation between Android handsets and the iPhone, despite Google’s preexisting voice search. The new Google female voice actually sounds less like a machine and more natural than Siri. And there are […]
Head To Head: Siri Vs. Google Voice Actions
When you first begin using Siri it’s not entirely clear what you can do with it. (It’s also not clear how to access it.) Yesterday Danny wrote up some initial thoughts/criticisms of the Siri local search experience. In this piece I’m going to offer some general thoughts comparing Siri (on an iPhone 4S) with Google […]
Google Translate For Android Literally Speaks More Languages, Through Conversation Mode
In January, Google Translate for Android gained “Conversation Mode,” a way to speak into your phone and have it speak back in a different language. Today, Google’s expanded the number of languages supported. Originally, the tool only supported English-to-Spanish translation (or vice versa). Now, Google says 14 languages in all are covered: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, […]
Alternatives To Siri: Google Voice Actions, Nuance, Vlingo
Beyond some of the processing and other technical upgrades in the new iPhone 4S, the standout feature of the new device is the Siri “Assistant.” It’s an expanded and enhanced version of what’s behind the existing Siri iPhone app, which is being shut down on October 15. And while Siri is not a “voice search […]
Google Maps — Now With Voice Search
Voice search all began for Google several years ago with the now-shuttered, free directory assistance service GOOG-411. After the underlying infrastructure had matured Google introduced it on Android devices and in its iPhone apps. More recently, in July, the company put the same voice search capability on Google.com on the Chrome browser for the PC. […]
Apple Moving To Close Gap With Android On Speech, Navigation
As a long-time Android user I can tell you two specific areas where Android beats the iPhone’s otherwise superior user experience hands down: speech and navigation. All text fields on Android devices are speech-enabled, including email, SMS and the search box on any site. The iPhone offers “voice control commands” that allow users to initiate […]
Google Voice Search Adds Personalization
Traditional search on Google is already personalized (and has been for some time), and now the company has announced that its Voice Search service can also be personalized. With personalized voice search, Google will use recordings of your voice search to “build a speech model” that’s tied to your Google account. In doing so, Google […]
GOOG-411 Winds Down, Bing-411 Parties On
Yesterday Google announced that it was shutting down 800-GOOG-411, the free directory assistance (or voice search) service it launched in April, 2007. Back in those days the mobile landscape looked very different than it does today. It was challenging to conduct searches on most mobile phones and the iPhone was in its infancy. The first […]