Google Now: Why Siri Better Watch Out

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At the recent Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) I/O conference, the company launched a variety of interesting products, like the Nexus 7 tablet and a cloud-computing platform. But perhaps the most important one was Google Now — a voice-activation system for mobile devices.

Of course, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has its own offering, Siri. However, considering the flood of complaints from customers, it seems more like a beta test; like the kind of technology that Steve Jobs would have waited to release.

Google Now, on the other hand, uses a technology that learns about your habits and patterns to help refine the answers to your questions. In other words, the technology is more than just about connecting voice recognition to some dictionaries, directories and GPS information. It is instead human-like, as if you had your own personal assistant.

When it launched, Siri looked like a big threat to Google’s search engine franchise. After all, when people increasingly use smartphones, they will want to have voice services to get things done.

Now, it looks like Google might have the edge.

– Tom Taulli, InvestorPlace