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Infographic: Google Study Finds Voice Search Most Used To Ask For Directions

For both teens and adults, voice search is also most used while watching TV, study finds.

Danny Sullivan on October 15, 2014 at 4:20 pm

We’ve had the ability to speak a search query to smartphones for some time now, but there hasn’t been a lot of data on what types of searches are most done this way. A new study commissioned by Google reveals that getting directions is the most popular query type among adults.

Over at our sister site Search Engine Land, Teens Embrace Voice Search, Many Adults Feel “Like Geeks” Using It covers the study in more depth. As part of the release, Google shared several infographics summarizing key findings, which are presented below.

What We Voice Search For

Perhaps most interesting is the chart listing reasons why we voice search. For adults, it’s to get directions — and that’s number two for teens:

Teens are more likely than adults to ask the phone to call someone. They’re also big on asking what are apparently a range of queries aimed at doing their homework.

Getting movie times is popular with both, as is asking for the time — which is kind of odd, given the time will be shown right on the phone the person likely picked up to speak to.

When & Where We Voice Search: While Watching TV

Are there particular situations when voice search is more used? The survey also has a breakdown on that:

Both teens and adults confess to doing voice searches while in the bathroom, though the percentages are low, 22% and 15% respectively.

For teens, doing a voice search while watching TV (59%) and while with friends (57%) are the highest use cases. Adults also do voice searching the most while watching TV (36%), followed by when with friends (24%) and while cooking (23%).

What We Wish Voice Search Could Do

Finally, the survey gave reasons why people say they voice search as well as what they wish it could do:

The why (as opposed to for what, as covered above), has fairly odd answers that get high marks. It’s safer? It’s the future? That suggests the questions might not have been open-ended.

More interesting is the portion asking what people wish voice search could do. Sending pizza is tops among teens, who apparently haven’t figured out that if you’ve done a voice search for pizza, it’s going to list places that you can call. Maybe they expect voice search could just send an order automatically.

Adults would like voice search to find their keys. Yeah, that would be nice.

About The Author

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.