Virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa have carved out their own little part of our homes by offering interesting aspects of voice-controlled utility. One of these interesting aspects that helps us out a little while also helping Amazon lock us into its online shopping ecosystem is by allowing us to add items to our shopping list, simply by shouting them out to Alexa. Another is asking Alexa for quick tips on how to perform household chores and tasks. Amazon looks set to combine these two capabilities and may start serving up little ads for products whenever you ask Alexa certain questions. Let’s go through what you will need to look out for.
Amazon has just announced the “Customers Ask Alexa” Program, which will see promotional messages added into answers to common household questions. The idea is rooted in the idea that Amazon views bands as experts on their products and on the situations where they could be applied successfully.
In the blog post announcing the new Alexa capability, Amazon gave an example of how it could work:
“For example, a customer shopping for cleaning products on Amazon.com could ask, “How can I remove pet hair from my carpet?” A brand can now provide answers to such questions, along with links to its Amazon storefront.”
Although these product prompts sound a lot like ads, interestingly Amazon is not being paid for the feature and the little prompts are not sponsored in any way. Amazon has also stressed that all of the information provided by brands that could plug their products in response to certain household questions and queries will be moderated and put through quality control checks.
Amazon is planning to roll out the feature on an invite-only basis from next month with a view to roll out it much more broadly from next year.
In other Amazon news, the company has finally updated the crappy UI on Amazon Prime.
