In a head-to-head quiz, Google Now crushes Siri and Cortana

[techbeck]

There is nothing sweeter than pulling out your phone, asking it a question, and getting back the one obscure piece of information you need to settle a debate or win a drunken bet. Smartphones from Google, Apple, and Microsoft all offer a personal assistant who claims to be flush with knowledge drawn from around the web. But when it comes to providing useful answers, a new study shows there is a clear choice when you're stumped and need to phone a friend.

 

The SEO consulting agency Stone Temple has published the results of a case study it conducted on the digital assistants that come standard on the mobile devices powered by Google, Apple, and Microsoft. The Verge reached out to the company, and it confirmed that none of these tech giants had ever been a client, but of course this is still a study from a private company, not rigorous academic research, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

More....

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/9/6951813/google-now-crushes-siri-and-cortana

 

Sure Cortana could be better if Bing was and integrated more.  But thing GNow would still come ahead since Googles search is better in many areas.

 

Anyway, just an independent study so take it with a grain if salt like the OP states.

[Dashel]

MS does have work to do to add more 'Knowledge Boxes'.

[techbeck]

Really would like to see more of a comparison/test between the three.  Seems the focus is on Cortana and Siri.  Guess it is kind of hard for the Siri vs Cortana ads to have a conversation with Google Now since it is represented as a product, not a person/ai.  If that makes any sense...I am tired....

[123456789A]

The web results (question and answer retrieval) part is a valid area to test these "personal assistants" on. On the other hand, scoring them for which "easter eggs" they can do is not.

[Guest]

I see The Verge haven't changed.

[Cute James]

I see The Verge haven't changed.

Haven't changed what?

[Orange Battery]

The only thing I can use speech for is setting an alarm. I can't cacel the alarm, access my stop watch or anything like that.

[BajiRav]

So they compared Google Search and not Google Now as the title says. Are they the same thing these days?

 

They also mention that bing answers questions which Cortana doesn't.

 

It was interesting to note that in many cases Cortana would not return knowledge panels when a text-based search in Bing would. Google actually tended to do the opposite (voice search would bring up results that a regular text search would not). We did a spot check of scenarios where Cortana returned some type of knowledge result, but it did not fully answer the question to see in how many cases Bing returned a more enhanced result.

Faulty comparison in any case. They should do the test with Google Now running on a phone.

[techbeck]

I see The Verge haven't changed.

 

You mean The Verge shouldnt post articles from other sites?  The posting even said take it with a grain of salt.

They should do the test with Google Now running on a phone.

 

They did.  Read the link to Stone Temple Consulting.  There is a video with them using Cortana, siri, and GNow on phones.

[FloatingFatMan]

Really would like to see more of a comparison/test between the three.  Seems the focus is on Cortana and Siri.  Guess it is kind of hard for the Siri vs Cortana ads to have a conversation with Google Now since it is represented as a product, not a person/ai.  If that makes any sense...I am tired....

 

Look at it more like, Cortana/Siri are Commander Data, and Google Now is the Enterprise computer. ;)

 

I've done my own testing between Cortana and Google Now, and in each case, Google came out on top. Either the results were better, or they were presented in a better way (such as GN reading out a wiki entry on something, and Cortana just giving me a link to it.)

[techbeck]

Look at it more like, Cortana/Siri are Commander Data, and Google Now is the Enterprise computer. ;)

[Guest]

You mean The Verge shouldnt post articles from other sites?

 

They keep making click-bait headlines. That's what I don't like and why I stopped visiting.

[BajiRav]

You mean The Verge shouldnt post articles from other sites?  The posting even said take it with a grain of salt.

 

They did.  Read the link to Stone Temple Consulting.  There is a video with them using Cortana, siri, and GNow on phones.

Aah..couldn't load video at work. Wonder why they bothered putting screenshots of google.com then!

[Cute James]

They keep making click-bait headlines. That's what I don't like and why I stopped visiting.

...and yet you still visit Neowin? ;)

[DConnell Member]

So they're all decent products, and Cortana, which is the "youngest" and officially still in beta, still needs some work. Sounds reasonable to me.

 

 

Or am I supposed to be outraged and consider the results rigged because the assistant on my platform of choice didn't win?

[dead.cell]

So they're all decent products, and Cortana, which is the "youngest" and officially still in beta, still needs some work. Sounds reasonable to me.

 

 

Or am I supposed to be outraged and consider the results rigged because the assistant on my platform of choice didn't win?

You're catching on!  :beer:

[link6155]

Keep in mind this is only 1 study, would like to see some more tests done in a similar fashion.

[Dashel]

I'm betting Siri and Cortana would win on a PA based test.

[freidieehf]

thats a huge gap between Google and Siri