Google is expanding its market. Google Inc. is bringing its Google Now technology to iOS, where it will compete with Apple Inc.'s personal digital assistant, Siri, to serve as the primary service that users rely to get almost everything out of their mobile devices.
On Monday, April 29th, 2013, the personal assistant and predictive search known as Google Now gets approved for iOS. Google's predictive search and voice recognition tool enters the Apple's ecosystem as an app that is said to be competitive against Apple's personal assistant Siri because of its accuracy.
"We think we've built a great experience," said Tamar Yehoshua, Google Search's director of product management, during a conversation at Google's headquarters in Mountain View last week. "We're giving you an answer before you've even asked," she explained. Google is "able to predict knowledge that you want before you know you want it."
Having debuted last year's Google I/O 2012 conference, the Now-enabled Google Search 3.0 for iOS brings the same search features and visual style, called cards, to iPhones and iPads.
Google Now does that by taking advantage of several different technological areas. It leverages, the text-to-speech output, the Knowledge Graph, and the technology stack to provide its voice recognition and predictive search combo. (read: How Google and Microsoft Search Beyond the Boundaries)
Unlike Google Now on Android, which is made as a native app that is always on, the Google Now app on iOS will require its users to log in to their Google account first.
The predictive search in Google Now will use the users' calendar to determine, for instance, what information it should show. That information can change depending on where the user is going, so it might show traffic, or recommended places nearby.
Google Now's Voice Recognition has made some significant improvements since it was first introduced. "We've seen a 15 to 35 percent improvement since Jelly Bean (Android 4.1)," said Vincent Vanhoucke, Android Uber Tech Lead.
Now and Siri
Personal assistant technology such as Apple's Siri, Google Now and products created by various start-up companies aspire to play what could become a critical role on smartphones by helping users with daily chores such as looking up information on the web, handling calendar appointments and managing travel plans.
Some analysts believe Apple's Siri, which comes preloaded on iPhones and iPads, can give a growing threat to Google. The information that Siri provides on common topics such as sports scores and nearby restaurants reduces the need to visit Google's search engine, the analysts say.
Johanna Wright, Google's vice president of Search and Assist for Mobile, described Google Now as the next phase in the evolution of search, in which answers are served up without a user needing to type in a query. This technology is integrated into Google's various online services, from web search to Gmail email and Google Calendar entries, to deliver relevant information throughout the day in pop-up windows that Google refers to as "cards." But unlike the Android version of Google Now, in which users can swipe the phone's home screen to quickly access the pop-up cards, the version for Apple's iOS will only display these cards when a user has opened the Google Search app.
Conclusion
The increasingly fast usage of smartphone has made the market a battleground. With the needs of mobile today, people are accessing the web more from their mobile devices instead of personal computers.
And technology that slowly buy steadily merges with various human activities has made the market hunger for something new and something innovative.
Expectations for voice recognition have been low for several years. People had underwhelming experiences with voice recognition on their smartphones and GPS devices. This formed a set of expectations that self-reinforced what people built. If developers and innovators don't see technology moving toward voice recognition, they are not going to try to push it to move in that direction. But with momentum building, they're going to hop on board; and expectations create reality.
There is a new era of digital personal assistant. Siri has already proven to represent a step forward in voice recognition. It has proven that innovations can meet the market's voice recognition expectations that has been low for several years.
Now Siri has met its 'first' true competitors. Both Google Now and Apple's Siri offers fundamental improvements on the way people navigate their mobile lifestyle.
The appearance of Google Now for iOS devices marks another step for Google to willingly try to compete and 'replace' iOS's native apps. In September last year, Apple replaced the Google Maps app that once came preloaded on iPhones with a new maps app that Apple created in-house. The Apple maps service contained embarrassing errors, drawing fierce criticism from consumers and reviewers and forcing Apple CEO Tim Cook to offer a public apology.