We’re all guilty of looking up facts while on the go. After all, isn’t that what our phones are for?
Well, Google knows this and is continuously improving the way which it accepts and renders voice queries. You may have tested this feature in the past yourself.
After a heated discussion, you may have turned to your Google app to ask:
- Who are the tallest NBA players?
- What are the largest cities in California?
- What are the smallest countries in the world?
These types of searches are known as “superlatives.” There is a qualifying word that constitutes structure and order. In the above, these are tall, large, and small. These examples are based around size solely.
The same works for timing.
- What was the population of Tokyo in 1975?
- What songs did Madonna record in 2015?
- What was the Royals starting lineup in 2013?
Search engines parse through a timeline of data in order to reveal accurate results. In these examples, the years dictate the structure and order – and allow Google to make sense of data on a chronological level.
But what if we get more complicated with our queries? How much can voice search handle?
- What was the US population when Bernie Sanders was born?
- How many NFL football teams were in the league in 1970?
- Who was the US President when the Angels won the World Series?
Sometimes the best way to visualize this sort of progress is through visuals. The below graphic reveals how the necessary data compilation might come up with the correct answer in real-time.
I can’t wait to see how this technology evolves. Better yet, I will be anticipating the adoption rates of this capability and how it’s accuracy and ease might take over conventional text-based search in the future.