How Google Might Lose the Voice Stakes

Businesses wishing to get on the Voice bandwagon find little support from Google. It's a shame. And an Opportunity.

As a consultant, my clients and I grapple with what form the Voice Interface will take and how we might develop and refine those skills in the same way we refine and develop the web user experience. Instead of being able to call SquareSpace, Weebly or GoDaddy for customer support we find ourselves wading in FAQ from Google, Amazon, IBM and Intel, desperate for some help.

Google started Siri well before Alexa’s conical tube invaded countertops across America. Google, with its genus Enteroctopus tentacle-like abilities, whose reach is both deep and vast and can find nearly anything -both expected and wildly surprising- on demand and anywhere in the world. But Google isn't Amazon and it's losing the Voice game: why?

Google isn’t Amazon in important ways. It doesn’t really sell things as much as deliver information. Whereas, while many argue that Amazon is an IT company, it is not really an Internet of Things as much as a service provider facilitated by a platform - i.e. the internet. As the internet evolves into voice form, the default platform is now Alexa, the worlds best-known and best-loved Voice interface. 

Earlier this month, Amazon rolled out a new Skills Developer to enable companies to offer services - or skills - to customers, and thus increase loyalty and market dominance So where does that leave Google? 

Why hasn’t Google caught up with Alexa’s skillset and how can the company ever catch up?

There are two answers to that question. The first is: in which area? the second is, why would it want to "catch-up" with Amazon anyway?

In an early-stage duopoly where the world is split up into two different parts, the number of potential strategies for Google to develop are still vast.

For example, rather than build a random set of skills to match an infinitely varied number of goals and audiences, Google could specialize in industry offering a suite of services for industry – say travel and hospitality – or education – and go deep. Perhaps that is what they are doing. In fact, the area of lowest penetration - business services - as illustrated in the graphic below, is the best opportunity yet

To quote Jerry MacGuire, Help Me Help You. For Google to leapfrog Amazon would be to create a customer interface as a business service, helping to onboard and customize the voice experience. In other words, make it easier for businesses to craft what this new medium can do to extend our brand, service and deliverables. By helping us, Google would help itself.

I may have a Google “follower” or three, and while I can only hope they will read this article, I encourage businesses to ask what Google and Amazon can do for them. Together, we may create a more seamless Voice experience and build the new internet in our vision.

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About the Author: Catherine Dionne Henry is SVP Brandfing Innovation and Chief Experience Officer at Palpable Media, Inc. an Emerging Tech Marketing Agency focusing on advertising, branding, live events and social media. She loves to swim and would rather learn Mandarin than tap-dance or run marathons.

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