In recent years, voice search has grown rapidly, allowing everyday users to speak into their devices instead of typing keywords into a search query to get answers. According to PwC, 65% of 25-49 year olds speak on their voice devices at least once a day.
Speech recognition on our devices has also become extremely sophisticated and accurate. Although voice search has been around for a while and isn’t a completely new concept, we’ve seen a technological breakthrough in recent years with the rise in popularity of voice assistants Amazon Alexa , Google Assistant and Siri .
Voice Search: Figures and Facts
Mobile users are much more likely to use voice search – in fact, three times more often than landline users. Currently, approximately 31% of global mobile users use voice search more than once a week. The majority of voice search users – just over half – are under 18 years old.
Increasing precision and enormous potential
It is estimated that about half of all Google search requests are made using voice search. This search option is growing in popularity, in part due to the increasing accuracy of voice searches; according to Google, voice searches are 95% more accurate.
Sales volume is rising rapidly
In 2020, the global sales volume of smart speakers reached an all-time high of 150 million units sold. And 27% of the world’s online population uses voice search on a mobile device. Both of these indicators show an upward trend, and the number of households using a smart speaker is also growing rapidly.
As a result, most devices are now optimized for voice search. What does this mean for brands and businesses? Voice search is predicted to be a $40 billion channel soon. As such, it’s time for companies to optimize their interfaces, platforms and websites to keep up with the changing voice search landscape.
A Brief History of Google Voice Search
The beginnings of Google voice search can be traced back to 2010, when it was developed in the Google laboratory. The original functionality was a bit more complicated than it is now: you could set up the service by calling a phone number from your contact list, then you were prompted to say keywords. The search results then appeared on a blank web page. Voice search has since become much more streamlined. Today, it is compatible with most applications and products and increasingly responsive to nuances of tone, pronunciation and accent. It has now become a core part of the Google experience and is rapidly growing in popularity.