Yesterday, Google held its annual I/O conference and as is the manner of such meetings, products and services are announced. The conference yesterday just confirmed what Google already told us about their further push into the Artificial Intelligence (AI) market.
Google Home which an Amazon styled “Echo” was announced yesterday. Google Home is a voice-activated home product that allows you and your family to get answers from Google, stream music, and manage everyday tasks. It is a speaker device that has no buttons on it and is activated by voice. Like Google router OnHub, Google Home can communicate with Chromecast device plugged into the TV. With the vast amount of resources available on the Google search platform, you’ll be able to speak into this tiny device and get answers to just about anything at anytime. This new product has no price attached to it just yet and at the moment you can click here to get notified on future announcements on Google Home. The primary reason for this device is for people to communicate with Google in their homes according to the Mario Queiroz who is the Google executive in charge of the Home product.
As the battle by tech firms to control your homes heat up, Google looks like the one with the competitive edge because of its already huge database of users cut across the world. Billions of searches by billions of people are carried out by users monthly on Google Search and this has the potential to make Google’s new product the more comprehensive one with respect to results. In any case though, even the Google CEO Sundar Pichai credited Amazon with “creating excitement in this space” already. Amazon has already sold millions of Echo devices which costs a average of $180/35,000 Naira in less than two years. An owner of Amazon Echo is able to tap into the world’s most popular ecommerce platform by voice in addition to other Amazon services like movies and music. Besides the advantage Google Home may have when it finally hits the market is that it may appeal to markets where Amazon services are not still as popular like African and South American markets. Google search already has the ability to connect you to simple and complex services like healthcare among others. This somewhat “robust” Search service connects you to the closest restaurant and stores (online or physical) in your area. In all this, analysts keep asking what Apple which was recently surpassed as the biggest tech company in the world by Google is going to launch in the home AI space and when.
This then brings to mind the AI race by top tech firms which has had analyst asking what Apple plans to approach this going forward. Facebook announced an intelligent Chatbots system at its last F8 conference which businesses can use to reach new customers without having to worry much about human labour costs.
Price and availability time of Google Home was not part of the announced yesterday.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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This new product has no price attached to it just yet and at the moment you can click here to get notified on future announcements on Google Home. The primary reason for this device is for people to communicate with Google in their homes according to the Mario Queiroz who is the Google executive in charge of the Home product. 
