OK Google, Find Me a Remodeler
While some companies are still struggling to step into the 21st century, HomeAdvisor is 20 miles in and gaining speed. The company made waves throughout 2017 with continued aggressive growth and its acquisition of Angie’s List, to form ANGI Homeservices. Keeping up that pace, HomeAdvisor closed out the year by grabbing one last headline: Its integration with Google Assistant.
The voice search interface is Google’s answer to Amazon’s Echo (i.e., Alexa), a voice-controlled, virtual personal assistant that has already been adopted by more than 11 million people worldwide, the majority of them in the U.S., according to a report from Morgan Stanley. HomeAdvisor’s decision to integrate with Google is an obvious move for a company trying to capture market share, but it’s also a calculated one. As ANGI Homeservices CEO Chris Terrill explained in a statement: “Having built the products and technology to seamlessly connect homeowners and service providers on demand, HomeAdvisor is the ideal home services marketplace to partner with voice assistants across the spectrum.”