Best Voice Search Software

Did you know that Google search processes over 99,000 searches every single second and around 8.5 billion searches a day? Well, it shouldn’t be surprising since whether we need a new smartphone, a hairdresser visit, or anything else, the search box is usually the first thing we use.

Until recently, we searched for those things primarily by typing a few keywords in the search box and then browsing the results page. Voice search technology is the best way to change this, as using voice commands is much faster and easier than typing keywords. Not to mention, voice search can also be a great help for people with various disabilities when it comes to online shopping or finding information on topics they are interested in.

How could you use the potential of voice search for your business? And most importantly, which search engine software would be best to help you here? This article will answer all your questions.

State of voice search in 2023

Can you believe that voice search has been with us for over ten years? Hard to believe, but Google launched its first voice search engine in 2012. If someone told us then that ten years later, we’ll be asking our digital assistant to check the news or do groceries, we would probably think they watched too many sci-fi movies.

And look at us now – our mobile devices, laptops, car devices, smart speakers, and even wearables now have a dedicated voice search feature. So whether we want to check the weather forecast, find the nearest gas station, or quickly find products in an online store, we just need to give a voice command to the virtual assistant, and we’ll get an answer almost instantly.

Even more convenient is that we don’t have to browse through dozens of results either – the voice search engine will pick one or two results that match our expectations the most and show only those.
So that shouldn’t come as a surprise that voice search is rising – here are some recent statistics to prove it.

• 27% of the global online population uses voice search for mobile searches
• 65% of internet users between 25-49 use their voice-enabled devices daily
• Nearly 50% of internet users use voice search features to search for products or services
• By 2023, 8 billion people will be using digital voice search devices
• 71% of consumers prefer searching through voice instead of typing
• In 2021, over 45 million consumers from the United States used voice technology for shopping
• About 60% of U.S. e‑shoppers reported making either daily or weekly purchases using their smart home voice assistants
• The total worldwide transaction value of e‑commerce purchases made through voice assistants is expected to rise from 4.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 to 19.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2023

Benefits of voice search

So, what makes voice search so popular, especially among mobile phone users?

There are a few reasons. The first one is simply that voice search is a much more natural way of searching for us. Think about it: if you wanted to check a recipe for a grilled chicken online, you would probably type something like “Best recipes for grilled chicken.” Would you ask a friend for a recipe this way? Of course not – you would ask, “How do you make a grilled chicken?”. The conversational language makes the biggest difference between regular and voice searches. When you use voice search assistants, you can speak precisely as you would with a friend – so the voice search queries sound much more natural.

However, there are many more reasons why people are using voice search – and why businesses are also incorporating it into their websites.

Convenience

The biggest reason voice search is becoming so popular is simply that it’s far more convenient for searching. We don’t have to type anything, browse multiple pages or figure out how to find a given product inside the store. Instead, you give one command to the voice search feature, and the engine will swiftly find the information or products we are looking for.

Because the voice search only needs to hear a command for us to work, we can use it when our hands are occupied – for example, while we are baking and our hands are all sticky from the dough. Or let’s say you do not want to cook after a long day at work, so you are looking for some takeaway place near your workplace that you could visit while returning from work. Typically, you would have to type “Takeaway near me” into the search engine, browse through the results and then check the location, menu, and prices of the restaurant you picked. That takes a lot of typing or clicking, though.

By using voice search, you can do all those things just by saying “Find a takeaway place near me” to the intelligent assistant in your mobile phone or car system, and it will immediately tell you which restaurants you might want to visit. What’s more, it can even tell you the shortest route to the place or read the menu.

Speed

Besides being incredibly convenient, voice search is also much faster than a typed search – simply because it’s far easier for us to ask the smart device a question than type it into the browser. Our average typing speed is around 40 words per minute (not counting professional typists here who can type even 60-80), while an average speaking rate is 120-150 WPM. See the difference?

Plus, as the voice search picks the most relevant search result, we don’t have to spend time browsing the search results. That makes voice search ideal for getting quick answers “on the go” – for example, when we want to check the location of a store as we are driving.

Multi-device compatibility

To use a typical search engine, we need a keyboard to type the keywords into the search bar. The thing is, though, the smaller the device’s screen, the harder it is to fit a keyboard there – and use the keyboard for typing. You know what we mean if you’ve ever tried to look up a long-named product on a smartphone.

Voice recognition technology doesn’t need the keyboard – hearing and understanding the command is enough. That way, voice search can be used on virtually any device – even those as small as a smartwatch or those that don’t have a screen.

Multilingualism

In the past years, speech recognition technology had a bit of trouble with recognizing different languages, accents, or speech patterns – to the point, some users admitted they had to use a different language or speak without an accent just so the smart assistant could understand them. Now, natural language processing algorithms advanced so much that most voice search engines can easily understand and respond to the question or commands in several different languages. Google Assistant, for example, can understand over 40 major languages, enabling people to speak to the voice search in the language they are most comfortable with.

Recently, Google voice search users in India can get their voice search results in two languages – English and Hindi, even if the search query was entirely in English.

Increased accessibility

It might surprise you that the elderly and people with disabilities are even more enthusiastic about voice technology than young people. According to AARP, around 30% of seniors now use voice-activated speakers like Apple Siri, Amazon Echo, Alexa, and Google Assistant. The reason is simple – for them, using physical keyboards, small touchscreens, or following screen instructions is much more difficult or even impossible, forcing them to rely on family or caretakers.

Meanwhile, voice-enabled virtual assistants only need to hear a command and are ready to work – so people with vision impairment, mobility issues, or those who have trouble with regular keyboards can use those easily. With those devices, elderly or disabled people can check the weather forecast or news, manage their household devices, make appointments or search for information on a topic they are interested in.

Even more, life-changing for them is the option to use a voice search on an e‑commerce store. That way, they can browse the store, pick the products they need and purchase them themselves rather than ask family or friends to help them with shopping. This makes them feel empowered and more independent, as they can search for and purchase the needed items.

Better user experience

Lastly, using voice search can also tremendously boost the customer experience at your store. Rather than browse the entire catalog, visitors can simply use the voice search for whatever they’d like to find, and the search engine will show them the most relevant products straight away, making finding the products they want to get a breeze. Plus, they can search for and order the products they want whenever they need them – for example, they can order groceries as they are cooking or a takeaway as they leave the office. With the data you can gather from the voice search applications, crafting a personalized experience for each of your e‑commerce business customers will also be more accessible than ever.

As voice search isn’t widely used at e‑commerce stores yet, you can also use voice search to bring more customers to your store. For those who use voice search regularly, knowing that your store supports voice search might be exactly what will convince them to shop at your store instead of the competitors. But customers with poor eyesight, mobility issues, or other disabilities that prevent them from using regular search browsers will also appreciate that you are giving them a more straightforward method to buy things at the store.

Best voice search software for your e‑commerce store

Now that you know just how helpful voice search can be for your business, you might wonder how to add it to your store. The good news is that it’s pretty simple, as several e‑commerce search engine platforms already have voice search capabilities.

But which one should you choose? To make the decision easier, we compared five search engine platforms with voice search capabilities and a few of their other features – here are they.

Luigi’s Box

Luigi’s Box is an all-in-one e‑commerce platform that combines a search engine powered by Artificial Intelligence, product recommendation, analytics, and product listing features to help you make your store visitor’s experience better than ever.

Thanks to how easy the platform is to use and its many useful features, Luigi’s Box is often rated as the top software for businesses needing reliable third-party search solutions. G2, for example, recently picked Luigi’s Box as the leader in the E-Merchandising category and the third easiest-to-use tool in the category.

So what features can you find inside it?

Features

• Voice search
• Faceted search
• Customizable product banners that you can show directly in the search bar
• Typo tolerance and correction
• Listings pages recommendations

Algolia

Algolia is a hosted search engine used for e‑commerce product discovery and to add search functionality to a SaaS application, regular website, or enterprise database. According to their website, Algolia can deliver relevant search results in under 100ms, no matter how extensive the database might be.

Features

• Voice search
• Faceted search
• Advanced language processing
• Geo search

Klevu

Klevu is a search and discovery platform dedicated to e‑commerce that combines site search, product recommendation, and category management features. Since the application has direct integrations with major e‑commerce platforms and Headless SDK and API connections, it can be connected to virtually any e‑commerce business website.

Features:

• Voice search
• Visual Merchandising
• Product recommendations carousels
• Content search

Doofinder

Doofinder search site solution enables businesses to add advanced search engine capabilities to their e‑commerce websites in a flash, thanks to a no-code installation and configuration. The app also has several layout customization features to help tailor the search page design to your needs.

Features:

• Voice search
• Customized product banners
• Faceted navigation
• Visual search

SearchBlox

Providers of SearchBlox call their application a “swiss army knife” of search engines since it includes dozens of features that can help companies make their search experience more intuitive for enterprise employees, store consumers, and regular page visitors.

Features:

• Voice search
• Smart suggestions
• Faceted search
• Relevance boosting

Conclusion

People are getting more and more accustomed to searching for products and information online just by talking to the smart assistants inside their phones, smart speakers, or wearables. And what’s here not to like? Voice search is fast, can be used on virtually any device, and we can use it while having our hands occupied.

Still, not many websites and e‑commerce businesses offer this option. So adding voice search capabilities to your store can be an excellent way to attract the attention of prospective customers.

Frequently asked questions