What is Eric Schmidt’s top priority these days? To convince regulators that Google is not monopolistic. I wrote this post earlier about Google’s quest for world dominance and truly, I was not exaggerating when I said our online and offline lives will eventually be tangled in the web of Google. But at this point, Google is trying hard to prove that it has some real threats to its search business and among the newer ones, it is Apple’s Siri. Some bloggers went as far as to say that Siri could be a Google killer and Eric Schmitt wouldn’t immediately counter that-not at least when he is being questioned.
Why is Siri a threat?
The most important way that Siri changes search is it changes the front end of search. As opposed to Google’s austere yet sometimes fun single page search bar, for Siri, you just ask. Where Google gives you a dozen results you could pick and choose to read, Siri claims to intelligently narrow down the information you need. What Siri does, is it humanizes search. Also, inspite of its bouquet of businesses, Google still earns a large percentage of its revenue from advertising. What happens to that revenue stream if more and more users start using Siri? This is definitely something the Google execs have to worry about in the long term. I would also worry about businesses that are all about search optimization and adwords because they will need to seriously rework their strategy keeping in mind the new search technologies.
Here’s the real deal
Secretly, I don’t believe that Eric Schmidt really believes that Siri is a threat to Google. It definitely has changed the way people access information and it will change the search game in the long run, but for now, Google still owns two-thirds of the search engine market. And as we go forward Google will not be simply sitting on its hands about Siri. It will go all out and bring out its own Android-driven personal assistant. (Not far too behind, it was recently reported that Amazon has acquired Yap- a speech recognition company, presumably to further its efforts in the personal assistant space.)
Generally, top executives have a tendency to downplay the threat of competition. When Siri took the world by storm, Android CEO Andy Rubin said “People don’t want to talk to their mobile phones”. This statement came out as Android engineers were already working on their version of a personal assistant. If you have read this post on Siri, you’ll know that selling Siri to a wide range of demographic groups is hard. Apple is not an everyman’s company and this seriously limits the reach of Siri. On the other hand, if Google comes out with a “good enough” product that may not be as dashing as Siri but gets things done, it will do just fine. As it stands, it is way too early to predict rise of Siri or death of Google. Smartphone technologies are changing everyday and they come with their own complex sets of problems. As a consumer, I am happy to have a choice and as a blogger, I am excited to watch what happens.
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