Amazon Echo Hears a Challenge From Google in Voice-Powered Travel Search
Photo Credit: Okay, Alexa and Google: Which voice-enabled speaker will win the travel search wars? Skift
Skift Take
Despite the hype, neither the Amazon Echo nor the Google Home is delivering the goods yet for voice-command travel research. Google's effort has the most promise, though.
On Tuesday Amazon aimed to retain its dominance in the sales of voice-powered Internet devices by beginning to take orders for a new device, Echo Show, which has a screen and basic video-conferencing features.
Amazon leads the market for voice-activated personal assistants. Analysts estimate that the company has sold between 8 million and 11 million of its speakers since all-but-pioneering the device category in 2014.
But Google has gained ground since it launched a competitor device, Google Home, last November. Earlier this week research firm eMarketer estimated that Google has already gained the second-highest market share, at 24 percent.
Last month Google added several flight-search commands to Google Home. Users can ask general questions, such as how much flights to a particular city or country cost.
In Skift's tests of Google Home and Amazon Echo, neither device wowed. The biggest drawback is that none of them yet allow voice-powered flight or hotel booking.
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