Google calls on search smarts to catch Amazon’s voice assistant

Amazon.com Inc. and its Alexa digital assistant are closer to realizing that a plan for the future of computing, having cut a deal this year with Ford Motor Co. to let drivers search, shop and control other devices by voice from their vehicles, BloombergTechnology reports.

That's just one of the ways Amazon is outpacing Google in the race to weave a digital assistant into consumers' lives. What's more, Amazon has a leading e-commerce business well suited to this emerging world, with a massive delivery network to speed orders to shoppers - an area where Google has struggled. Amazon's Echo connected speakers, launched in 2014, have given Alexa an early lead by reaching millions of users at home, while Google's rival Home device only came out late last year. 

“Amazon kind of fell into this lead in 2014 because it wanted to sell more things to people in new ways," said Brian Roemmele, founder of ReadMultiplex.com, a website about voice-based commerce and computing. "Google is trying to evolve its online search experience into devices that have a voice. That philosophy limits its ability to really go after Amazon.”

Central to Alexa's appeal: Amazon has thousands of voice-based apps up and running, far out-numbering Google's tally. The Alphabet Inc. unit used its I/O developer conference this week to try tonarrow Amazon's lead by wooing skilled programmers capable of building tools and services that can make the Google Assistant more useful.

The company stressed experience with mobile software and the millions of things it already understands on the web and in the real world. Vehicle and payment functions were rolled out to expand the Assistant beyond the more simple ways people use it now, such as setting alarms and playing music. 

"A lot of what you need to get done is transactional," said Gummi Hafsteinsson, product director for the Assistant. "We take care of all the nitty-gritty hard parts."

Technology giants think voice-based computing could be the next big platform, after mobile. The company that wins will have the most users talking to devices and the most developers creating new experiences. Google’s Assistant has only been active for six months. That’s a major disadvantage when it comes to creating that virtuous circle of users and developers.