A recent analysis comparing Google Now, Cortana, and Hound showed that Google Now is the most reliable and helpful VA while Cortana is the most unstable. As more intelligent digital helpers are being developed, voice input could become the future of searching.
Greenbot conducted a test analysis of the supposedly top three digital assistants: Cortana, Google Now, and Hound. The test was both qualitative and quantitative, with Google Now garnering the most score. The VAs were scored according to their responses to a hundred questions that an ideal digital helper could answer effectively.
Google Now gained the highest total of points, followed by Hound, and then Cortana. The test indicated that Google's VA provides useful information most of the time, although it fails to effectively answer certain queries. Among the three, Google Now is considered the most mature and least playful VA, as well as the most useful and reliable.
Following Google Now is Hound, a voice recognition assistant created by Soundhound. Out of the three, it was only Hound that correctly answered the question, "Show me hotels in San Francisco for this weekend less than $400." The app is more playful and conversational than Google Now and can do follow-up inquiries after an initial search. It can even convert currency with ease.
The least stable VA in the test was Microsoft's Cortana. There are times that Cortana misunderstands or does not hear the question correctly. On the other hand, it works well with some Android features and sports a Microsoft-like interface. Like Hound, Cortana is more casual than Google Now. It can find relevant news and locate restaurants.
Tech 2 reported that VAs are "robust applications that accept voice instructions and queries, process them to interpret them, and turn around a response in spoken words". They are able to respond to inquiries with human-like replies combining humor and intelligence.
According to Search Engine Land, digital assistants gather data in different ways to make better predictions for the user. VAs can use data from email, search history, browsing history, calendar and events, location, and information from third-party apps to base their predictions on.
As smarter digital assistants are being developed, the future of searching could be centered on voice input. Other competitors in the VA field are Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa.
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