Voice Search Is Not The Future, Say Experts

Google’s Martin Splitt believes that voice search isn’t the future, and SEO doesn’t support it. Starting around 2016, notably in 2018, Google has pushed producers to use organized data in voice search. Google validated speakable structured data and added Guided Recipes to the search results.

Google constructed an entry to the voice search highway, but it did not appear to lead anywhere. According to a recent Search off the recorded podcast, we now know why voice search isn’t the future of SEO.

Google Voice Search

Google Assistant was released in 2016, allowing a new voice-based search engine and promising a unique platform for content distribution.

In 2018, Google launched the Speakable pattern data sets in a Beta campaign for journalists. That assumption painted an image of people asking Google for news and Google responding by talking it to them and delivering links to their phones.

“When someone asks the Google Assistant, “Hey Google, what’s the latest news on NASA?” the Google Assistant answers with a news item snippet and the name of the news outlet. The Google Assistant next asks the customer whether they want to hear another news article and provides the required links to their mobile device.”

By 2021, Google will have established a new page for developers for the Speakable beta program. Distributors were asked to include the Speakable structured data markup on their pages to assist web engines and other devices in determining whether or not sections of the text are speakable.

Speakable structured data was once again sold to publishers as a new platform for engaging a larger audience.

“The speakable schema.org attribute identifies areas of an article or online page that are typically suitable for voice playback using text-to-speech technology (TTS). Markup, web search tools, and other programs may recognize data to read aloud on Google Assistant-enabled gadgets via TTS. Sites with speakable structured data may utilize Google Assistant to deliver material through new channels and reach a larger audience.”

Many in the search field are optimistic about the future of voice search because of the last statement about reaching many people. The sector was thought to be on the verge of a new approach to reach new viewers, and it never really occurred.

Google Says Voice Search Not the Future

Googlers John Mueller and Martin Splitt talked about the future of search in a recent Search Off the Record podcast, and the conversation eventually shifted to voice search.

John Mueller wondered if the search sector will have to optimize for voice search in the future.

Martin Splitt wasted no time in turning off the lights at the voice search is the future event. His reaction was anything but emphatic.

Expert Opinions

John Mueller asked: “What about voice search? Will SEOs have to optimize for voice search?”

Martin Splitt replied: “Oh God, the future that never will be. I think no, because if we learn anything….”

Martin then contrasted voice search to the keyboard-less computation future popularised by the tv program Star Trek. The actors interacted with the computer by speaking directly to it.

The Star Trek “converse with your PC” method sparked the creation of Google Assistant. In 2013, Record published a story in which a Google employee declared that voice would be the ultimate search fate.

The Slate interviewer questioned: “Is there a roadmap for how the search will look a few years from now?”

In the 2013 interview, the Googler replied: “Our vision is the Star Trek computer,” she shot back with a smile. “You can talk to it—it understands you, and it can have a conversation with you.”

Martin Splitt continued: “I remember a bunch of years ago, people were like: “Oh, we’ll stop using keyboards and just do a voice.”

And I think that has been a recurring theme from the 90s.”

Martin’s reasoning of why voice search isn’t the future may address a more developed understanding of the technology now that we’ve been using it for a couple of years.

He mentioned that the “input modality” of voice search has changed. Indicating how search experience has changed. But the tail end of an investigation that cycles voice requests has not changed, implying that voice SEO does not need to exist.

Martin explained: “But I think in the future, it won’t change and will naturally or magically become the number one thing that we need to worry about.

Simply because it changes the input modality, and it probably changes how queries are phrased. Still, it doesn’t change the fundamental use of natural language to retrieve information from the Internet.

So I think you don’t have to worry too much about it, to be honest, but that’s maybe just me. Perhaps the future will be completely different, and well… I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Martin Splitt Voiced His Well-Informed Opinion

Martin downplayed his statement by saying that he had no clue what the future of voice search was. And that this was just his opinion. In any event, if you’re going to listen to anyone’s point of view, Martin Splitt’s point of view carries a lot of weight and should be taken seriously.

Is Voice Search Not the Future?

Martin Splitt appears to indicate that, in his viewpoint, a completely keyboard-less future, as envisioned in 2013, is unlikely to occur.

Since, to quote, the tail end of the search, which has progressed significantly since 2013, is just the same regardless of “input modality.”