Ever since the Internet has become ubiquitous, the ways we conduct online searching have also expanded. Voice searching is just one of the many advanced technological features that weren't available to us back in the early days of technology and the Internet. Today, almost every search engine has the option for voice search. And this feature doesn't end at only search engines.
Voice searching has also become a part of many of our devices. The most common examples are our cellphones and our laptops or PCs. From Siri in Mac OS to Amazon's Alexa or Cortana in Microsoft, each operating system has its own artificially intelligent voice bot embedded into their systems. We use these voice search facilities to look up a number of things or to get tasks done. We can make voice search queries related to something that we did the day before, to find something on the Internet, or even for system commands.
GlobalWebIndex is constantly tracking internet activities from all over the world. This includes internet usage, mobile phone usage, and search behaviors. If we highlight the search behaviors, the trackers show a massive increase in voice search and voice command since the start of 2020. The data from GlobalWebIndex’s research shows that almost half of the internet users from Indonesia, India and China are now using voice technology every month.
However, voice search is not only evolving; image recognition services have also seen huge traffics. The most widely used tools among younger users are Pinterest Lens and Google Lens. In the past month, around one-third of users aged between 16-64 years have seen using image recognition tools. These tools are mostly used in e-commerce to categorize different things, such as home décor, fashion, travel, beauty, etc.
Due to the Internet becoming accessible and connectivity features becoming an inherent part of a product's hardware. This phenomenon is known as the internet of things, where many devices can interconnect with each other, without the need for human intervention.
Voice searching is not only limited to Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana, but it has also become popular across many platforms. We can find the voice search option even in various appliances such as refrigerators and now voice-controlled cars have been invented as well, of which Google's self-driving cars are a relevant example.
Snapchat is well-known for its variety of filters and lenses, but amongst thousands of lenses, how do you search for that one perfect lens which would perfectly suit and convey your mood? Well, Snapchat has recently announced its 'Voice Scan' feature, which uses voice commands to search through thousands of lenses.
Using Voice Scan is easy, all you have to do is press the viewfinder for a few seconds and then speak into your phone about the kind of lens you are looking for. A variety of requests can be made for this purpose. For example, 'front-facing' requests can be that you want yourself to appear dressed up as a witch, so you can simply say "Turn me into a witch", or anything related to the kind of look you want to achieve. On the other hand, there can be 'world-facing' requests, such as "I want to see the sunshine" or "I want to see the clouds" etc. Other than these, you can also ask Snapchat to play your favourite music or simply do something entertaining for you.
A new era of online search is upon us. As technology keeps upgrading and evolving constantly, voice search is becoming more common on the internet.
Why is Voice Search Important?
It is estimated that almost half of all internet searches will be done in the form of voice searches in 2020. ECommerce is increasingly shifting towards voice search too, and voice commerce is predicted to become a $40 billion industry by the end of this year.How Can I Optimize My Website?
1. Use smaller images and files
Larger files take longer to upload, negatively affecting your website’s SEO. Make sure all the files and photos on your site are no larger than 100kb (unless necessary) to help improve your ranking.2. Clean up your code
The more complicated your website’s coding is, the longer it will take to load on the web. Use Google-approved tools to clean up code and remove unused coding elements.3. Modify cache settings to your advantage
Caches are how browsers save your website’s information for repeated visits. Make sure that you set your cache expiry for a month or so at least, so static elements load quickly.4. Speed up Your Server
Make sure your website's server isn’t slow. Cheap servers or shared servers will slow down the speed of loading your website.5. Compress non-image files
For all files except for images, you can easily use compression to increase loading speed and in turn user experience.Share This Infographic On Your Site
The incorporation of voice search into our daily lives has happened so fast that advertisers are searching everywhere to see how they can dip their fingers into the bucket.
Strategy Analytics recently reported that smart speaker sales in Q3 2018 increased by almost 200 per cent year-over-year. That is enormous! People everywhere install their own smart speakers to check the weather, order dog food and answer any questions they may have on a daily basis.
So what does that mean everywhere for the business owners and marketers? Okay... that means we need to change how we think about our search approaches, and start to include techniques that revolve around patterns in voice search and customer adaptations.
Because the muscles in our throat and mouth are under a lot of stress, it is important to make sure they don't tire out. Just like bodybuilders and sportspeople warm their muscles up before a workout, singers need to make sure they warm up their voices before attempting strenuous notes or before a long session of vocal exercises.
The technology was a novelty, a cool tool to test out, with sometimes informative and other times laughable responses to voice queries. Not many people predicted it would become a major digital trend of the future. But voice search has changed a lot since then. Now there are a variety of voice-activated technologies on the market (e.g., Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant).
People use voice search on their mobile devices, and more than 420 million voice assistants have been sold. People already use voice assistants way more than they used to, mostly for commands (e.g., set an alarm, call Mom). But there’s still a lot of growing potential for search marketing as well. That’s mostly because the AI technology behind voice search has become immensely more accurate. According to Google, voice recognition accuracy has grown to 95 percent since 2013.






