• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 8, 2014

Google has released an update to its search app for Android and iOS that searches the phone's Gmail account for dates of bills due. It works as a reminder, pulling in notations from the calendar and scanning emails for related words, similar to the way it targets advertisements in Gmail that run down the right rail.

Saying "Okay, Google" or tapping the microphone on the Google app and saying "Show me my bills" or "My bills due this week" will pull up information on payments due. The app will show a quick summary of upcoming and past bills.

The mobile feature is not available on desktop. It works on mobile through Google Now, the company's voice assistant application.

The app allows users to set reminders such as stopping at the store on the way home today to get milk and bread, or setting reminders to stop at the store on the way home on Saturday.

Google has yet to provide insight into how paid search will match ads to intent-based voice queries, but it's likely to work similar to the way ad targeting works in Gmail.

Stone Temple Consulting (STC) published the results of a study Wednesday comparing mobile answers to more than 3000 queries on Cortana, Google and Siri. The results aim to compare how each performed. In a synopsis of the results, industry expert Eric Enge explains the study focuses on the technology as a knowledge engine, rather than a vice assistant platform. The study was based on knowledge, not the ability to carry a task through from beginning to end.

Google provides the most direct and complete answers to fact-based queries in nearly 90% of instances. The engine did a better job compared with Siri and Cortana when it came to answering questions by understanding the language, sentiment and content, per Enge.