The future of search is voice.  Think about it as voice search and Artificial Intelligence technology continue to advance we are already seeing a large impact from natural language search activities.  I’ve been helping clients with their digital marketing efforts since before there was Google AdWords, so I’ve seen a lot of change in the digital space.  One of the greatest advancements in the field of Search is the shift to mobile from desktop search.  It’s all about convenience baby.  That’s were voice search comes in.  For some reason the world got itself in a big damn hurry… people are plugged in 24/7.  People crave information and they want information right now. The quickest way to find something out is to ask someone or something and receive an answer.  Voice Search anyone???

21 Stats About Voice Search that you Never Knew

I’ll have more on voice search in some upcoming posts, but for now I wanted to share some stats about voice search that you are probably not aware of.

1. 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020 – comscore makes the great point that Voice search is mobile and part of our everyday lives.  Again the easiest way to find an answer is to verbalize and ask a question.  It only makes sense that voice search will be used by the masses in the not too distant future.
2. Between 20 and 25% of mobile queries are voice searches – this according to Google.  Voice search is growing as people become more comfortable using virtual assistants.  – Search Engine Land
3. Voice searches consist of (on average) 4 to 8 words – compared to traditional text based type queries which typically average 1 to 3 words.  Makes sense doesn’t it?  Voice search uses natural language.  Perform some keyword research and pay attention to how many question based queries people are using to find your website or find information on your site after using your internal site search.
4. 21% of mobile voice search users said they use voice search because they don’t like typing on their mobile device (Source: Statista 2015)
5. According to Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB) Internet trends, as of May 2016, 1 in 5 searches on an Android app in the U.S. were through speech.
6. Since 2008, Google voice search queries are up by over 35X – (image courtesy of KPCB)
7. Voice search is quicker – Humans can speak 150 words per minute vs typing 40 words per minute.  As a result,  43% of people say that using voice search is quicker than using a website or an app (Source: Statista) – in addition, 28% of people think that voice search is a more accurate way of searching. SEO for Voice search from Katherine Watier 
8. “Personal assistants” was the top marketing search of 2016 in Bing – earlier this year, Microsoft’s Bing Ads released their top marketing-related searches of 2016.  With increased interest in chatbots and virtual assistants like Alexa, Cortana and Amazon Echo, personal assistants and AI saw the biggest gains in search activity.
9. 25% of searches on Windows 10 taskbar are voice – this coming from desktop and not even a mobile device!
10. 19% of people use Siri at least daily with 37% of people using Siri monthly, 23% using Microsoft Cortana montly and 19% using Amazon’s Alexa monthly– according to Hubspot (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
11. 60% of smartphone users who use voice search have begun using it in the past 12 to 18 months – Search Engine Land 2015
12. About 30% of searches will be done without a screen by 2020 – thanks to technology such as Google Assistant for home, Amazon Alexa for Echo and chat bots (Source: Mediapost).
13. 40% of adults use voice search once per day – (Source: comscore)
14. According to Global Web Index, nearly 10% of the online population or 325.8 million people used voice control in the past month. – Source: https://www.globalwebindex.net/
15. It is estimated that 500,000 Google Home units shipped in 2016 – Bloomberg 
16. It is estimated that Amazon has sold 5.1 million Echo device units in the US since launched in 2014 – with 2 million units being sold in the first nine months of 2016 – Source: GeekWire 
17. Nearly 50% of people are now using voice search when researching products – Social Media Today 
18. In a study from 2014, Google found that 55% of teens and 41% of adults in the US are now using voice search more than once per  day – Not surprising when you think about it as teen are always ahead of the curve when it comes to new technology.  They tend to talk to their phones more than the average adult. Source: Google Mobile Voice Study
19. According to that same study from Google, 40% of adults use voice search to find directions while 43% of teens use voice search to call someone.
20. 78% of teens said that they use voice search because it’s safer – while 73% of teens says it makes them more efficient.  Compared to adults where 76% said voice search is safer but only 62% said it made them more efficient. (Source: Google)
21. Consumer usage is on the rise – 51% of consumers use voice assistants in automobiles and 39% use voice assistants in their homes indicating an increased comfort level with voice search technology.  (Source: Wall Street Journal)

In Canada, Shaw Communications recently released BlueSky TV which includes a voice command remote control.  Technology will continue to make using voice assistants and voice search even more easy.  Expect the stats listed above to increase as a result.