Are voice searches the next big thing?

Search engine professionals seem to be evenly split on the idea of voice search becoming the next big thing. In the wake of the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where many gadgets were hyped based on their Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant integration, the topic of voice search has once again lit up within the SEO world, and there is plenty of skepticism this time around. An interesting aspect of voice search that pragmatic SEO professionals have noticed is that Google has not added this type of internet query to its analytics tools. At this time, it would not be unreasonable to think of voice search as a technology that will go the way of 3D television sets or virtual reality headsets; while these are two advancements that have seen commercial release, they have not lived up to their initial expectations in terms of widespread adoption. Voice search has been around far longer than the Amazon Echo smart speaker; this is a technology that dates back to the GOOG-411 search project, which was dissolved in 2010 in order to pave the way for Google Assistant. This technology has certainly come a long way in terms of functionality thanks to major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence; however, there is a difference between voice commands and voice search. While many people are certainly telling Alexa to play a certain song or to call someone on their contact lists, not many are actually saying "Hey Google, what is the price of tea in China." The future of voice search is important for the SEO community because professionals in this field will have to optimize for voice search if it ever becomes a major trend. At this point, however, there is too much hype surrounding the forecast that 50 percent of all internet queries will be spoken by the end of the year. A recent survey by market research firm eConsultancy indicates that voice search has actually declined over the last 12 months. The key for SEO professionals is to not be swayed by projections; Google, for example, recently suggested that 74 percent of people who use the Google Assistant app do it on a daily basis, but this may mostly be commands and not actual voice searches. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/ajlflj/voicesearchisthedumbestthingever/.