Crab, a beta product launched by Apple last fall and remaining at the same stage a year later, seems to be slightly surpassed by a product launched by Google just last month. Google Voice Search is the name of this product and those of the New York Times claim that it puts Siri in the corner, at least when it comes to performing web searches and understanding some questions. Everything is based on a test of 1600 questions made by an American analyst, a test that gave the winner to the system from Google, a somewhat newer but better built system.
Mr. Munster subjected Siri to over 1,600 voice tests, half in a quiet room and half on a busy Minneapolis street. In the quiet room, Siri understood requests 89 percent of the time, but she was able to accurately answer a question only 68 percent of the time. On a busy street, Siri could understand what people were saying 83 percent of the time, but answer a question correctly only 62 percent of the time. It could hear well enough. The problem in his analysis was that the software was not good enough to understand questions. Mr. Munster gave Siri a "grade D" and said it needed to improve sharply in order to be an alternative method of mobile search.
In the case of the New York Times editor, Siri has become a product that is no longer very appealing, although the owners of iPhone 4S terminals seem to love it unconditionally. In a comparison with Google Voice it proved that there are differences between the two systems, Google Voice being one step ahead of Siri for now, but Apple is preparing an iOS 6 that brings many changes to Siri. Until then, we have a summer in which Google will be praised for its system, and if Apple sees the reality then it will improve Siri enough to return to the top and maybe it will decide to give up the title of a product in the beta stage of development.
Google Voice Search, available in the latest operating software for Android phones, is a much better listener. It's definitely smarter. If I ask Google Voice Search a question, like, "Who is Tim Cook?" it responds with an answer. (He's the chief executive of Apple.) If I ask Siri the same question, the response is: "I don't see Tim Cook in your contacts."
