With Google’s release of its brand new search app for iOS, we decided to put Siri in the ring with Voice Search—now available on your iPhone—to see if she could defend her own turf.
Overall performance on both sides was generally sound. There were some odd answers, like when I asked for information about the worst Hurricanes in New York City, and Siri gave me hockey scores. Or when I asked when the next Giants game was, and Google gave me the scores for last week’s World Series games, instead of an upcoming NY Giants schedule.
But in the end, and as you can see above, Siri was just a bit too slow and erratic to compete with Google Voice Search. Google came up with a quicker response almost every time, was more accurate, and frankly sounded much less grating than Siri.
Google Voice Search really shines when you’re searching for something that needs to be found on the web. Whereas Siri usually requires an extra click-through to instruct Siri to open Safari, the Google app hits the web with every query; and almost always with quick, accurate results. Of course, it Google’s version has its limits; it doesn’t have access to the data stored on your iPhone, so you can’t tell it to send a text to someone or search your contacts. Otherwise, though, it’s a very welcome improvement.