Both Apple and Google haven’t been on good terms recently (as noted with the stock YouTube app disappearing in iOS 6) and they both continue to compete in the same markets. The search giant recently lifted the curtain on a major update to the iOS Search app. Google’s Search app for iOS will soon be receiving an update that will improve the voice assistant component and bring it on par with its Android Jelly Bean counterpart. The upcoming version of the search app is said to take advantage of Google’s experience with speech recognition and it’s Knowledge Graph, which tries to make connections between different pieces of information.
For iOS users, the updated Search app will let you ask a question using natural language and receive a spoken answer, much like Apple’s own digital assistant, Siri. The range of information available spans everything from weather and local movie listings to the height and weight of your favorite sports star. The feature is supposedly a small improvement that Google says is vital in building its search engine for the next generation.
You can watch a video of Google’s promotion below:
The developer and entrepreneur behind the app, Ndav Gur, says that queries based on concepts, not keywords is the future of search. He believes that apps like Siri and Google Search are “on the cusp of an entirely new thing.”
For those of you who are interested, Google’s free iOS Search app should be receiving the update within a few weeks.
Source: Google (blog)
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