Google Assistant bests rivals for questions answered and overall accuracy

Earlier this year, Stone Temple Consulting released a virtual assistant consumer survey showing the majority of respondents wanted the assistants to provide “answers” rather than conventional search results. Today, the firm published a follow-up study that measured the relative accuracy of the four major assistants.

It compared results of “5,000 different questions about everyday factual knowledge” on Google Home, Alexa, Siri and Cortana, using traditional Google search results as a baseline for accuracy. The following table shows the study’s top-line results.

As one might have anticipated, the Google Assistant answered more questions and was correct more often than its rivals. Cortana came in second, followed by Siri and Alexa. Of the questions it could answer, Amazon’s Alexa was the second most accurate assistant. Siri had the highest percentage of wrong answers of the four competitors.

One of the interesting observations in the report is about featured snippets. Cortana had more featured snippets integrated than any of the others, even Google Home, although Google search had more. Siri and Alexa lagged far behind in the category, although they want to use third parties to deliver “answers” and transactional capabilities.

Google now let's you submit URLs in Google's search results

Google now lets you submit your URLs to their index directly from their Google search results page as seen in the image above. To get this done, all you need to do is search for "submit URL to Google", and Google will display a box at the top of the search results that enables you to submit a URL to Google’s index.

This is exactly same as the functionality of the public submit URL form tool but places it directly as a smart interactive answer directly in the search results.

With this tool, you can submit any URL you want to the Google index. Google will then review and see if they want to index the URL and show it in their search results. Of course, submitting a URL to Google for inclusion in their search index does not assure you that it will be included in the index.

You can now scan docs with Dropbox on Android

Dropbox for Android has finally received the doc scanner feature, which amgives its users opportunity to scan their printed or handwritten documents right from within the app. iOS received this feature a long time ago, Android users will finally be able to make use of the feature, which can serve to save time as well as provide convenience.

Users can crop or rotate their scans to capture exactly the right image, and even scan multiple pages into a single PDF. In addition to these standard features, Dropbox Business teams have the added benefit of searching for keywords inside their scans," Alexander Embiricos, product manager at Dropbox, said in a blog post.

Notably, users of Dropbox Business will get the added benefit of searching for keywords inside their scans, thanks to optical character recognition (OCR) technology, as pointed out by VentureBeat.

Apart from adding the scanner feature to Dropbox for Android, Embiricos also announced that the company has added an offline mode to its Dropbox Paper app on both Android and iOS. "Even if you lose your Internet connection, you can continue to create new docs, or access, edit, and comment on your favourite and recent docs. And once you're back online, your changes get synced so you have a smooth, seamless experience when you're working on the go," he said.

Notably, with the update, Dropbox Paper now supports up to 20 languages on both mobile platforms.

Nigeria ranks 7th place on PoS transactions in Africa

Nigeria ranks seventh position among African countries where the use of point of sale (PoS) form part of transactions, Nigeria Communications Week has learnt.

According to a report by Indexmundi only 21 percent of total transactions in the country are done through the PoS device.

South Africa stands at the top with 91 percent followed by Ghana 80 percent while Tunisia is third with 79 percent. Other countries ahead of Nigeria are Egypt, Morocco and Kenya in that order.

According to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the PoS density per 100,000 people in Nigeria is 13, while India’s is 67; Uganda, 453; Namibia, 338.

The target for Nigeria, according to the bank, is to meet Brazil’s PoS deployment rate of 2,247 per 100,000 people by 2020.

As to why this is so, Kevin Chung of Avante International Technology revealed at the recentlg concluded CashlessAfrica Expo that while the communication network and bandwidth are adequate, the data centers in the financial communities in Nigeria need to upgrade from Tier 1-2 to Tier 3-4 to enable the cashless economy. 

You Can Now Get Free Medical Consultation From A Doctor Across Nigeria On DoctorsHub Nigeria

DoctorsHub Nigeria was launched on the 20th of November, 2016 by Dr Damian Avar who saw a need to connect people in need of a doctor’s’ opinion about their medical symptoms or conditions. He brought in Everest Nwagwu a communications expert and Ayopo Onafowokan to handle operations and branding respectively. The trio are all graduate of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

Consultations on DoctorsHub Nigeria can be done at any hour of the day and, in a bid to reach a wider audience, any preferred major Nigerian language — be it English, Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. According to the founder, having these features all for free particularly gives them an edge over their counterparts.
Also, Dr Avar assures that the dealings of clients with doctors on the platform are strictly confidential. Apart from providing medical consultations, there is a blog on the platform, on which health articles that address peculiar medical conditions are frequently published. To further facilitate an effective reach, Dr Avar assures that content on the blog is rid of medical jargon so that readers can easily grasp them and embrace their relevance.

In less than 6 months of operation over 2000 people with diverse health complaints since inception have been successfully attended to without any form of advertisement.

Many Nigerians can relate to the ordeals faced when trying to secure a medical appointment with a doctor in Nigeria — a scenario mostly ubiquitous in government hospitals. Asides the tension over attempts to see a doctor, the hurdles faced while queuing up for medical attention can be daunting.

DoctorsHub Nigeria seems to have indeed placed itself as a bridge to this daunting gap — the joy of circumventing queues, coupled with the ease of consulting a doctor at any preferred time in any preferred language. DoctorsHub Nigeria also educate and attend to cases such as depression, autism and Meningitis.

Don’t just take our words for it, try out the service for yourself. Engage a doctor on the website.

Payporte announces suspension of Payment on Delivery

Following the recent calls for the abolishment of Payment on Delivery (PoD), because of the insecurities like robbing and killing of delivery agents, Payporte has taken the first leap as the first Nigerian online shopping store to announce the suspension of Payment on delivery service.

The company has placed an header on their website which clearly announces the suspension of the pay on delivery payment model.

The company promises 48 hours returns on deposited funds in the event of any arising liability.

Before now, the company had previously announced that it  would be done with this payment method by end of December 2016 but it’s quite surprising that it has taken several months after to effect it. It is probably the unfortunate incident involving the death of a Jumia delivery man, Mr. Chukwuma Eleje, that initiated the company to finally take this decision.

I think this is a wise decision the company has taken. At least until the insecurities of PoD can be settled.