SIRI: Future of Search

Siri Assistant:The Future of Mobile Search

Weekly Update #1February 23, 2010

Kia-Lillian Hayes | Laura Wilson | John Whipple

The Perfect Search Engine?

“It would… understand speech, questions, phrases, what entities you’re talking about, concepts. “It would be able to search all of the world’s information, [find] different ideas and concepts, and bring them back to you in a presentation that was really informative and coherent.”

Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google

Is it a Search Engine?

“Siri is not a search engine technically and it’s not intended to be a replacement for Google.”

“It’s another major step away from the much derided ‘10 blue links’.”

What’s the response?

“The concept is pretty powerful… Siri gets better the more you use it, can adapt to the places you frequent, and can use technologies like geo-location to find better results.”

What else is out there?

Vlingo Nuance

Dragon Search

Bing

Google

What does it do?

• Uses speech recognition and offers personalized answers to questions about the weather, directions, movies, etc.

• Taps into a range of Application Programming Interfaces

Where Does Siri Get Its Answers?

• TrueKnowledge.com • WeatherBug• Citisearch• OpenTable• Taxi Magic• Rotten Tomatoes• Yahoo Local• Yelp• Movietickets• Stubhub

What are the key benefits?

• Improved intelligence software• Understands the context

of the search• Geo-located search • Remembers preferences

over time• Utilizes voice recognition

technology• Intended to be used on the go

What does it do?

Geo-located Results

Answer Simple Questions

Partners Make Recommendations

What is the impact to SEO?

• Takes search to a new level– Targets qualified leads (i.e., people ready to make

a purchase, reservation, etc.)– Captures “long tail” preferences over time

• Optimizing for local search becomes more critical in mobile search

• Caters to people on the go

Siri vs. Search

• Derives user intent through conversation with the user, instead of just keywords

• Focused on “task completion”

• Targets your particular interests and personality

VS

Siri vs. Search

• Focused on completing tasks for you, not finding specific pages

• Brings users closer to transactions and fulfillment of their objectives

• Siri focuses on a few important vertical domains– Restaurants, bars, movies, events,

local business, weather, and services

VS

Why Siri Works In Today’s World

• Increasing amount of structured data on the Web (in XML, and even RDF)

• Availability of open API’s for services that provide information and transactions

• The growing adoption of 3G smart phones and other mobile computing devices

Siri’s Limitations

• Cannot handle general knowledge or tasks outside of its focus areas

• Cannot do complex planning and purchasing• Takes awhile to learn your preferences• Voice recognition software has flaws

Good for Your Business or Client?

• Task completion focus centers around commercial activities – buying or selling things

• Task completion uncovers consumer intent more explicitly than search

• Task completion is potentially more monetizable than search

• Companies can become part of yourpersonal database

How to Take Advantage of Siri

• Your business must be listed, visible, and highly ranked on the appropriate web partners (Yelp, Yahoo Local etc.).

• Make your own Web site friendly for a mobile user.

• Other APIs like Siri may arise and improve technology

• Early visibility in Siri can foster brand loyalty

Potential Challenges

• If your business can not be found on the appropriate web partners you will never be reached by Siri users

• User preferences on Siri could potentially “block” you from being found by the user making it harder to acquire new customers

• It becomes increasingly different to “stand-out” from your direct competitors

The Future of Search

• Siri is an early prototype of the next generation search engine

• Siri may change user expectation of search• Personalizes search – remembers over time• Greater importance for local search• Rise of partnerships among APIs

Questions?