Google has shut its voice search experiment in India because of negative result for search through voice responses. On this, Google India’s product head, Vinay Goel has said, “The experiment was wound up as we did not achieve scale and viability. This experiment helped us learn more about user needs and build core technologies.”
Experts believe that in India putting a person on call is cheaper than an automated system. Alok Mittal, MD, Canaan Partners India, a VC firm said something similar. He said “A sales lead through local search can get you Rs 40-50, which far outweighs the cost of an agent.”
This service was first started in India in major cities like Hyderbad, Bangalore, Chennai. People could just call 1800-4199-9999 and get the details for Paradise Biryani through voice search system.
The indigenous search engines in India have been booming since last two years but voice search has still not caught on. Indian websites provide text search listing and while calling is free for the customer, the minor problems like understanding voice demands may have made it flop. “We never wanted to be in the call centre hiring kind of model,” said Goel of Google.