Start page gets voice control

Internet has changed beyond recognition in recent years.

Home, which lasts twenty years on Saturday, has recently developed an application for the Google Assistant, the smart help of Google. When people say 'Talk to Home', they can ask a question, for example how a terrarium should be heated, or how many megabytes there are in a gigabyte. Home in his daughter 'GoeieVraag!' to an answer. In the future Home also wants to search for answers in other places. In addition, Home wants to expand to other assistants, such as Siri from Apple, Alexa from Amazon, Bixby from Samsung and Cortana from Microsoft.

Home page also wants to see if it is possible to combine the spoken questions and answers with images, where information appears on the screen. ' Many people use such an assistant when they have a screen in the neighborhood. We are scanning whether combinations are possible. For example, you could say: book a vacation to Curaçao for me '', explains Leon Dekker from owner Sanoma.

Many visitors to the Start page are over 50. It is precisely for them that a speaking help is useful, says Dekker. ' For example, they like to speak audio messages on WhatsApp. That makes them feel more logical than tapping on a small screen. ''

Home is also more convenient for that group than Google, according to Dekker. 'These people did not grow up with searches. Then you will find what companies want to come up with, but not what is relevant to you. You can get lost because there are so many websites and because you do not know which ones are reliable. ''

The late majority, Dekker calls his target group. 'They are people who do not necessarily have to be first, but who want to keep up with what their children and grandchildren do. They use WhatsApp and Netflix, book their holidays online and arrange their banking online, but they want to be taken by hand. ''