How to Optimize Your Content for Voice Search

With the current adoption of voice assistants and smart speakers, optimizing your content for voice search is always a smart choice. Here’s why. Smart speaker owners in the United States rose by 40 percent in 2018 to reach 66.4 million. Full Story: Edgy Labs

Google Assistant is getting a new celebrity voice – can you guess who it is?

Earlier this month, Amazon introduced the explicit epithets of Samuel L. Jackson, as an Alexa option, as if to counter the sultry and soulful tones of John Legend, who is available as a Google Assistant voice option in the US. Now Google is ready to unleash its latest celebrity cameo, with a teaser for the newest arrival appearing ahead of a promised launch on October 10 (tomorrow). The Instagram tease (which has apparently been deleted) was captured by 9to5Google and posted to YouTube. Full Story: TrustedReviews

Everything You Can Do With Google Assistant on a Chromebook

Google Assistant is spreading into more and more devices—you might be familiar with it from your smartphone, or your smart speaker, or your smart display, but it’s also arriving on more and more chromebooks, too. Full Story: Gizmodo

Alexa, are marketers obsessed with innovation?

I get a weekly email from Amazon Echo that somehow reminds me of Brexit. It includes a rambling list of commands you might try giving your smart speaker. We get the interfaces we deserve. I might scoff, but the appeal of smart speakers is real. And like Brexit it’s about taking back control. Full Story: Marketing Week

Netflix’s ‘3%’ gets its own voice game on Alexa and Google Assistant

Following the success of its Stranger Things and Dark Crystal games, Netflix is adding another title to its gaming catalog: The 3% Challenge, based on hit Brazilian series 3%. The free-to-play episodic game, coming to Amazon Alexa today and Google Assistant later this week, is a prequel to the Netflix series, taking players into a dystopian future where citizens of the impoverished Inland have a lethal chance to make it to the affluent “Offshore” society. Full Story: Engadget

Spotify rolls out Siri support and new Apple TV app

Spotify has launched the ability to play music with Apple’s Siri voice assistant on the iPhone and iPad. The new feature, only recently made possible in iOS 13, puts Spotify on more equal footing with Apple Music. It showed up in the company’s beta app in late September, but it has now rolled out to all users. Another new addition will automatically put Spotify into Data Saver mode when you activate Low Data Mode on your device. Full Story: The Verge

Alexa Adds Multilingual Mode for Bilingual Homes

Multilingual mode is aimed specifically at bilingual homes where two languages are frequently used at the same time. Until now, Alexa could only understand and speak one language at a time, and switching to another language requires adjusting the settings in the Alexa app. Full Story: Voicebot.ai

How to Use ‘Voice of Customer’ Tools for Your Business

Do you truly understand your customers? I’m not talking about creating personas, doing keyword research and looking at your demographics (although that’s important too)! I’m referring to listening to what your audience actually wants and needs to improve the customer experience. Full Story: Business 2 Community

What is Amazon’s ultimate Alexa strategy?

At its hardware event in Seattle last week, Amazon.com introduced a whopping 15 new products linked to its Alexa platform with the apparent goal of being a voice-command away from consumers at any time. Not everybody, however, is seeing the commerce connection. Full Story: RetailWire

Google’s New Action Blocks Are Siri Shortcuts for Android

The Android Action Block app offers a variety of tasks that Google Assistant and Android can carry out. Each block is given a name, an image on the device’s home screen, and a spoken command for Google Assistant. The Action Blocks can range widely from custom names for phone calls to saying goodnight as a way to shut off lights and turn on the alarm systems. Full Story: Voicebot.ai