Study: Google Now Trumps Siri and Cortana with Search Queries

A recent study from Stone Temple Consulting (STC) pitted Google Now, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana to determine which application would give the most relevant answers and which would perform the best. The study was done across 3086 different queries on all three platforms. STC says the queries were not random as they felt that structured queries “were likely to trigger a knowledge panel.” Company CEO Eric Enge made the presentation.

As seen in Figure 1 above, Google Now was the runaway winner, returning twice as many better results for merged data compared to Siri and Cortana. With experience clearly on Google’s side, the study credits this dominance with Google being “much further down the path with this type of work.”

STC also observed the instances when all three search assistants would provide complete answers. As seen in Figure 2 above, Google Now was once again the overall winner in an area where STC considered their grading to be “harsh.”

It should be noted, though, that the study was not meant to be a personal assistant comparison, but is instead a knowledge box comparison. Additionally, the questions asked during the study were factual, and therefore had no open ended answers. Enge was also quick to point out that the study does not indicate that Siri and Cortana are inferior to Google Now by any means.

The enhanced results returned in both systems had a far higher rate of being at least somewhat helpful, and in Cortana’s case, had a high rate of improving the standard search results. But you still need to click to see what you were really looking for.

Overall, it would seem to fall into preference, and which personal assistant is available to you. Siri can be considered the pioneer among the three, and has since become synonymous with all things Apple. Meanwhile, having been modeled after the popular video game character, Cortana is considered to have the most personality among the three, with developers focusing heavily on the ability to have casual conversations with the assistant. Cortana is also rumored to be coming to future Microsoft operating systems, as well as their Xbox One.

Nevertheless, Enge concludes that of the three, it is still Google that is “progressing the fastest on all fronts.”

What’s your preferred search assistant among the three? Do you think Siri and Cortana have what it takes to catch up with Google Now? Let us know what you think in the Comments section below.

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