Those who use the mobile web use it a lot. In urban centres it’s not uncommon to see dozens of people walking down the street peering into a smartphone screen.
Sometimes they are surfing the web or checking email, but oftentimes they are looking to do something — make a reservation at a restaurant, find a show or movie to go to, or make travel arrangements. But navigating the full web on a tiny screen can be cumbersome (especially when you’re walking or driving or on the train).
Siri, a startup that just launched its “virtual personal assistant” today, has identified this pain point and come up with an elegant solution.
Using a combination of speech recognition, location awareness and targeted search, Siri is able to deliver users remarkably relevant results. Using Siri’s app for the iPhone, just say “Find me a table for two at noon today.” Up pops listings from OpenTable of nearby restaurants with availability. Another click, and your table is secured.
Or say “When is the next Giants game?” Were I to do that here in San Francisco, Siri would show me a screen from StubHub with ticket options for the next game at AT&T Park. One click, and my tickets will be at Will Call.
It’s worth noting some of the impressive subtext of what could seem like a rather mundane task for a computer. Thanks to its location awareness Siri knew I was in San Francisco, and was therefore probably looking for tickets to the San Francisco Giants baseball game, as opposed to the New York football Giants game. And thanks to it’s refined speech recognition, powered by Nuance, Siri knew what “next” meant.
“We’re focused on helping you do things in the world,” said Dag Kittlaus, co-founder and chief executive. “A lot of times that means e-commerce — booking a restaurant or a flight.”
And on today’s web, where there is e-commerce there are referral fees. Siri makes a small commission for every customer it sends to its many partners, which include OpenTable, StubHub, MoveTickets.com and more.
The Siri team met while working at the Stanford Research Institute on an artificial intelligence project called CALO (Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes). The project, funded by DARPA, encouraged teams to spin off into companies, and Siri was founded in 2007.
The company has taken more than $23m in venture capital over two rounds, and clearly spent the past few years refining their product. But now their launch timing looks to be just right. Smartphone and mobile web usage is taking off. And if Siri can convince people that it should be their “virtual personal assistant”, those referral fees will add up fast.
