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Apple buys voice recognition company Siri |
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In a move to distance itself from Google, Apple is buying voice recognition developer Siri in a deal thought to be worth between $150 and $250 million.
Siri's mobile personal assistant app uses GPS and voice recognition software to understand user requests and generate semantic search results. Rather than searching the web for keywords in the way the Google voice activated search does, the Siri system links up with third party services to deliver personalised results. At present it only works with around thirty third parties, including Rotten Tomatoes, Wolfram Alpha and Yahoo! Local, but ultimately the software could work with thousands of websites.
The Siri system is at its best finding location-specific information, such as local restaurants or cinema listings, and this makes it ideal for a platform such as the iPhone. Google still has the upper hand on general searches but future developments could see Siri merging with other teams to launch new search services to rival the Google engine.
The formerly cosy relationship between Apple and Google has been damaged lately as both firms compete for the same markets. Apple has been more cautious than Google about spending money, but both companies have invested in startups in the same areas. Though there is no confirmation of rumours that Apple is developing its own search engine, the takeover of Siri could break Apple's current dependency on Google. More at http://www.siri.com |