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December 20, 2011
Just a month after Google chairman Eric Schmidt spoke of Siri being a direct threat to Google’s search engine, Google appears to have done some reconnaissance and the company now possesses an equally threatening response to Apple’s quirky vocal assistant. News of Google’s new smartphone assistant, aptly named ‘Majel’ (after actress Majel Barrett-Roddenberry who voiced the Star Trek ship’s computer) is currently spreading throughout the web development world, development of which is said to be ongoing. According to technology news site Physorg, Majel is Siri’s first real competition, but it may not be the last.
Tech news and reviews site Eweek stated that the software is currently being built in Google’s top secret lab, Google X, and agrees with most other news sites that Majel may be available by next month or anytime early next year.
Better Than Siri?
Tech blog Android and Me, states that Majel is an evolution of Google’s current verbal assistant software, Voice Actions. They noted Android User Experience director Matias Duarte previously hinting on the Voice Actions evolution, saying, “Our approach is more like Star Trek... Starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just Computer.” So Majel will be able to follow instructions given in natural language much like Siri, but it will not have Siri’s “personality traits” and quirky replies to queries.
Despite Majel’s lack of personality, many experts say that it could excel in other areas Siri does not. For one thing, an anonymous informant has told Android and Me, it offers search results on different swipeable “trays”. So one search will lead you directly to a results page, but a “tray” beneath it will show additional results on Google Maps, another on Wikipedia, so on and so forth. And hardcore Star Trek fans will be thrilled to know that the software answers to commands beginning with “computer...”.
Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil acknowledged to Eweek that Siri is “limited in scope and language-only three English dialects plus French and German-not to mention the bugs [that] befall every challenging new technology.” And though not much information about Majel has been released, it can be assumed that Google will make every effort to improve in the areas where Siri is sorely lacking.
Only the Beginning
Physorg reports that the materialisation of Majel may have been bolstered by Google’s company purchases last year. It was reported that Google acquired UK-based speech synthesis business Phonetic Arts in order to improve the sound of its automated voices. Similarly, the company also acquired recommendation engine developer Clever Sense and restaurant authority Zagat, adding to Google’s already well-stocked information reservoir.
Industry analyst Jack Gold told Eweek that he believes Majel may only be the first of many more to challenge Siri, as Apple’s technology can and may have already been duplicated or exceeded. He expects Microsoft Bing to follow in Google’s footsteps shortly, as it has already begun work on its automotive applications for Ford's Sync navigation software. Gottheil agrees, and with just the right modifications and aggressive online marketing, Siri may very well be overshadowed pretty soon.
Victory for the Google Android
Elsewhere in the App world, it has been reported that the Facebook for Android mobile app has just exceeded the daily active user (DAU) count of Facebook for iPhone, leading the way with 58.3 million followed by iPhone’s 57.4 million. According to web development and technology publication TechCrunch the two had been battling it out for a while with Android constantly trailing behind its earlier conceived counterpart, until now. TechCrunch reports that unless Facebook for iPhone finds a way to support Timeline, Facebook’s newest profile format, Facebook for Android may continue to take the lead and widen the gap. Should this happen, and should Majel prove to be a success, Google will surely be a step ahead of its long-time nemesis.
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