Siri Query Tests Show Less Reliance on Google in iOS 6, and other surprising facts

As time draws on we’re finding out just how hard Apple was pushing away from Google when they drew out the plans for iOS 6. Dropping Google Maps was a huge change, but have you ever thought about how that resonates across the rest of the iOS platform? Investment firm Piper Jaffray recently ran some Siri tests to see what changed from iOS 5 to iOS 6, and the answers are pretty startling.

For one thing, Siri looks to sources other than Google a lot more than she used to. That was bound to happen, seeing as navigation is one of Siri’s most useful applications and Google Maps got the axe in iOS 6… Whereas Google used to have a hand in 60% of Siri’s responses, that figure has now dropped to 30%, leaving Google plenty of time to pour work into Google Now, their own voice-operated assistant service.

Other sources that benefited from Google’s diminished role in Siri include Yelp and Yahoo!, both of which saw significant increases in the turnover from iOS 5 to iOS 6… But Apple didn’t just spend their time putting Google in the corner, they were also able to tweak Siri so she understands a bit more than she did in iOS 5, which is great for those of us who feel like we hear her say “I don’t understand” too often.

The results delivered by Siri are a great way to measure how deeply Google is still integrated into the iOS platform, and these Piper Jaffray findings definitely confirm Apple’s effort to minimize their reliance. The question is, how far can they take this?

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Devin Wieland

 

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