Itineris about Voice recognition and speech-based search
The rise of the smartphone, over the last ten years, has seen a huge shift in the way that we now interact with our phones on a daily basis. From originally having to press individual keys to type we’ve seen the introduction of custom keyboards and apps, to improve predictive typing, however one of the biggest advancements has been voice recognition – enabling us to dictate messages, interact with digital personal assistants and search through speech.
Every brand of smartphone has its own personal assistant. The Siri’s, Cortana’s, Google Voice and Google Now’s of the smartphone world are accessible at the touch of the button, recognising speech in different languages and allowing users to give voice commands.
So what does this mean for website owners, how can voice search affect you and your website?
In terms of technology, through the use of JavaScript and with the introduction of the HTML5 standard, this has enabled web developers to begin integrating voice recognition and search into their websites. Starting out with the HTML5 x-webkit-speech attribute for the input field, this was later deprecated due to vulnerabilities where speech could be captured without the user’s knowledge. The focus has now shifted to using JavaScript to integrate the functionality that will recognise speech and return results in real-time, with the Web Speech API available for use by developers alongside other third-party API’s. A third-party example is Google’s Cloud Speech API which has the ability to recognise over 80 different languages and variants which is suitable for websites with a global user base.
Such services can be integrated into all form fields, across a variety of forms and search boxes, giving users the ability to quickly interact with websites whilst on-the-go. This is a concept that’s becoming much more prevalent with the wider use of responsive web design, making it easy for users and consumers to access the information that they are looking for.
The marketing side of speech-based search and voice recognition shows a change in the way that users are seeking information. No longer are people mainly searching through keywords, they have now turned to asking questions, as they would to another person. To work with this shift in searching marketers should look to use keywords and phrases that align to the way in which we normally speak to each other.
People are also asking geo-location based questions through search, such as “Where is the nearest restaurant?”, “Where can I get…?”, speaking to their device as if it is another person. Ensuring that your website and business is listed with the physical locations on websites such as Google Plus should help to ensure you’re listed for such searches. Next time you go to ask your phone a question, have a think about what your user-base may be asking theirs!