by Joe Lonergan
Your smart speaker can be a useful resource for searching for information about local businesses in your local area.
Your smart speaker can give you all types of information about businesses and shops such as phone numbers, opening hours, and how far away the premises is from your location.
Here is a list of examples you can ask your smart speaker. For this we will use Alexa as it is the most popular smart speaker.
“Alexa find supermarkets in my area”. Or you can be more specific and ask, “Alexa find Tesco in my area”. Alexa usually responds with three options. If it responds with one that sounds familiar and it is the one you want, you can ask follow-up questions such as “Give me the phone number to the first one”, or you can ask “what are the opening hours”.
Your smart speaker can also be good for finding info on your local restaurants or takeaways.
“Alexa, find restaurants in my area.”
“Alexa, find me an Italian restaurant.”
“Alexa, give me the phone number for the Italian restaurant.”
If you are an owner of a Google Nest or an Apple HomePod you can also ask the same questions, as per the examples above, replacing the wake word Alexa with OK Google or Hey Siri.
Each smart speaker has its own quirks and advantages. Your Google smart speaker will return with information about the business and will also let you know what star rating it gets on Google reviews. Your Apple HomePod will allow you call the business directly from the speaker and also give you the option to get directions sent to your phone.