Review: Siri versus Google Voice Search versus S Voice

The Galaxy S III's S Voice used WolframAlpha to search for Taipei 101 and came back with an information card complete with its height in feet, as well as a more thorough conversion chart than Siri's and comparisons to the CN Tower and Eiffel Tower.

Google Voice Search completed in: 3.3 seconds

Google Voice Search pulled the answer for this question from two sources: Answers.com for a photo of the tower and Wikipedia for the height in feet and meters.

Winner: Google Voice Search. While it didn't offer a conversion chart, Google's Voice Search  edged out Siri and S Voice in this round thanks to its inclusion of a photo of Taipei 101 and its faster response time.

Question 4: "Did the New York Mets win last night?"

Siri completed in: 6.72 seconds

In our test, Siri was unable to give us an answer to give us the score of last night's Mets game. We therefore assume that it's a Yankees fan. It's worth noting, however, that Siri will receive a significant update, including the ability to provide sports scores, when iOS 6 is released.

S Voice completed in: 3.48 seconds

Like Siri, S Voice couldn't answer our sports question, and instead offered to search the web for an answer.

Google Voice Search completed in: 1.9 seconds

Google Voice Search not only answered our question quickly, but also gave us the complete game score, as well as the option of viewing a game recap and highlights.

Winner: Google Voice Search. As the only voice assistant to answer our sports question, Google Voice Search easily took this round.

Question 5: "What is the meaning of life?"

Siri completed in: 1.7 seconds

Siri is well known for its often quirky answers, and when met with this question, it didn't disappoint, giving us a witty response that had us chuckling.

S Voice completed in: 4.7 seconds

Like Siri, S Voice offered a charming answer to our existential conundrum. Unfortunately, it took a hit for taking much longer than the competition to formulate a reply.

Google Voice Search completed in: 2.8 seconds

Google's Voice Search didn't offer a response to this question, and instead performed a web search.

Winner: Siri. Although Siri and S Voice provided witty responses, the fact that S Voice took so long to reply to our question means that Siri takes this round.

Question 6: "What does poison ivy look like?"

Siri completed in: 4.56 seconds

Apple's voice-activated assistant gave us the best answer to this question, providing us with an image of the pesky plant courtesy of WolframAlpha. 

S Voice completed in: 4.64 seconds

S Voice was unable to give us a direct answer to this question, and instead offered to perform a web search for poison ivy.

Google Voice Search completed in: 2.94 seconds

Like S Voice, Google's Voice Search turned in a poor performance in this round, relying on a web search to give us our answer.

Winner: Siri. Not only was Siri the only virtual assistant to answer our question, but it did so by displaying an image of the poison ivy in the app window.

Question 7: "Get directions to Yankee Stadium."

Siri completed in: 3.1 seconds

After asking our question, Siri gave us several locations for Yankee Stadium. Once we selected the correct one, the app gave us two route options, the estimated travel time and distance from our current location.

S Voice completed in: 5.1 seconds

S Voice gave us the option to choose from a series of locations related to Yankee Stadium. After choosing the correct one, the app defaulted to Google Navigation and gave us a street level view of our course, the estimated travel time and a large window with turn-by-turn directions.

Google Voice Search completed in: 2.3 seconds 

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