Apple’s voice-controlled assistant, Siri, has the whole world abuzz since it was revealed. It does not need any introduction because it is so popular, everybody knows what it does. Now, Google is planning to launch its own voice-enabled app for the Android OS that is very similar to Siri.
Google is believed to be working on a Siri-like app called by the media as the “Google Assistant,” and is planning to launch it by the fourth quarter of 2012.
According to rumors, the Google Assistant will not be a standalone app. Google is planning on releasing an API to be used by developers to integrate it into the apps they are working on. According to Alexia Tsotsis of tech website TechCrunch, Google hired Nuance founder Mike Cohen for the project. The Assistant is planned to go beyond Siri in a lot of ways.
In the report, a source close to Google said that the development team is composed people from the Android team. The project is divided into three parts:
1) Get the world’s knowledge into a format a computer can understand.
2) Create a personalization layer — Experiments like Google +1 and Google+ are Google’s way of gathering data on precisely how people interact with content.
3) Build a mobile, voice-centered “Do engine” (‘Assistant’) that’s less about returning search results and more about accomplishing real-life goals.
With a number of Siri-like apps in the Android Market today, it is interesting how Google’s own will differ from the competition. We’ll just have to wait until the company unveils their latest offering.
via: TechCrunch