Google iPhone Voice Search - It’s All About the Ads
Posted on November 18th, 2008by Michael Gray in Google
I was lucky enough to have lunch with Matt Cutts last friday, and one of the things we spoke about was the Google voice search application that was (FINALLY) released today. After playing with it for about half an hour this morning I have to admit it’s pretty darn useful. If you speak slowly and clearly it does a really good job on recognition. However like most voice recognition software it falls apart when local/non english names and locations are spoken. For example google has no idea what to do with Long Island town names like [nissequogue], [massapequa], or [copiague]. That said unless you’ve grown up on long island chances are you’ve got no idea how to pronounce them either (they are american indian in origin in case you were interested). Things like this present a real challenge in the local search market, especially in mobile local search.
While everyone is fawning over Google for releasing a useful app (yahoo and microsoft should take notice), the part that everyone is missing is, this is all part of larger strategy to get people more comfortable with mobile and voice searches. Once google has achieved that goal, be prepared for more mobile advertising.
Here’s an interesting test observation, this a search for the term [weddings] a result I knew would have adwords ads:
Here’s the exact same search done using the iPhone google voice search
Two differences stick out, first the mobile search got universal search results (wedding thriller dance videos) and is completely missing the ads that were in the desktop/laptop search. Wait didn’t I say that voice search was all about showing MORE ads? Google is taking a long term approach here (something many webmasters could learn from), when you introduce a new service, you want to get the highest adoption rate possible, that usually means leaving off the ads. Use the history function to go back and repeat your search or type your search term, and viola’ the ads return. You can tell a voice search from the little green box at the top, which is present in the above screen shot but not the following one
The voice search application is very cool and very useful, and google has done a really good job with it. However people need to understand it’s part of a larger strategy to increase the amount of ads being shown and the revenue google will generate from it. With the number of smart phones in use across the United States this represent a very lucrative step for google.
Lastly if you’re looking for ways to get more out of your iPhone voice app check out 9 tips for the Google Mobile App for iPhone, it’s pretty helpful, and a nice example of linkbait.
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November 18th, 2008 at 10:52 am
so what you’re saying is …….in a few months the first screen hit will show ads after the “adoption” phase?? Makes sense. Very clear post though - easy to understand and hey I can’t pronounce those names for sure!
November 18th, 2008 at 11:06 am
@kathryn: yep thats it. I’d also imagine google would allows advertisers to target local mobile searches only, there are lots of categories where it would make sense and google would gain customers who wouldn’t normally advertise with them.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Michael you know of any good iPhone simulators out there that test more than just resolution, also test actual compatibility.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
@Jaan Kanellis: link fixed thanks
no all the simulators require you load all this java and other crap havent found one that works well yet
November 19th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Michael you know of any good iPhone simulators out there that test more than just resolution, also test actual compatibility.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:44 am
I downloaded and tried it out, and, in a moderately nosy environment (office hallway) it gave random results, but in a quiet environment it worked pretty well.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Only God knows where Google will stop! But frankly, it is way ahead of its competitors in terms of innovations and applications. This is just one of those Google innovations to keep with time and ahead of competitors.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:03 am
I have to comment here about your inlinks.com post above because you turned off comments. My comment is about the fact that you turned off comments. Are you nuts? (Well, yes, that was obvious after I watched your three videos on 1938media.com where you came across as a wild loon) but I don’t understand your logic about turning off comments on that post, depriving yourself of all the longtail traffic. Why can’t you just allow comments w/out commenting yourself? Re-enable comments on that post, there’s something that needs to be said…a lot of things actually.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:10 am
“But frankly, Google is way ahead of its competitors in terms of innovations and applications. ”
Yes, all of them. Especially Jaiku, Orkut, and the now defunct Lively.
Sidenote, if Google wants Jaiku to do better, just pay CNN 1 million a month to say, “Follow us on Jaiku” instead of Twitter. Since they’re not actually endorsing Jaiku by mentioning it, the FTC won’t care.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:47 pm
@Will: umm no