Using search redirects to enhance user experience.
How using redirects for broad search terms can improve user experience, looking at three big box retailers as examples.
All Post by Dustin Coates
Why ChatGPT won't replace search engines anytime soon.
ChatGPT is impressive, but let's not get ahead of ourselves: search engines aren't in danger.
Looking at OpenAI's Go-to-Market and Product Positioning
A look at how ML companies are approaching their go-to-market, continuing with OpenAI.
Looking at Hugging Face's Go-to-Market and Product Positioning
A look at how ML companies are approaching their go-to-market, starting with Hugging Face.
Creating search suggestions with ML via t5-base-qa-qg-hl (🤗 Taste Test)
How to use the Hugging Face inference API to create search suggestions.
Building Machine Learning Powered Applications (O'Reilly) Book Review
A review of the book Building Machine Learning Powered Applications
What's New in Alexa Skills Kit in July 2020, from Alexa Live
What did Amazon announce at Alexa Live 2020?
The State of Speech to Text (STT) Browser Support in 2020
Which browsers natively support speech to text in 2020?
First Thoughts on Alexa Skill Flow Builder (SFB)
Using Alexa's newest tool for building flow-based skills
Solving Voice UX Problems: What's an Alarm?
Or, why I can't get my voice device to understand me.
Voice Tech Podcast Episode on Voice Search
I spoke with Carl from the Voice Tech Podcast.
A Look at Dynamic Entities for the Alexa Skills Kit
Adding or removing entity values dynamically and temporarily.
Some of the 105 Voice First Tabs Left Open on My Mobile Chrome
Tabs that were interesting enough to open to read later.
AWS re:Invent 2018 Days Four and Five Recap
A look at days four and five of the AWS re:Invent 2018's voice sessions.
AWS re:Invent 2018 Day Three Recap
A look at day three of the AWS re:Invent 2018's voice sessions.
AWS re:Invent 2018 Day Two Recap
A look at day two of the AWS re:Invent 2018's voice sessions.
AWS re:Invent 2018 Day One Recap
A look at day one of the AWS re:Invent 2018's voice sessions.
CanFulfillIntentRequest with Alexa SDK for Node.js
Invocation-free interactions through Node.js.
APL: Alexa Presentation Language Walkthrough
The next stage in building visual experiences with Alexa.
Voice Search for Mobile, Voice-First, and Other Platforms
Building relevant and usable voice-powered search on any platform.
The Three Levels of Voice Interaction: Voice-First, Voice-Only, and Voice-Added
How each level of voice interaction changes the user experience.
VOICE Summit 2018 Day One Recap
A look at day one of the 2018 VOICE Summit in Newark, NJ.
Using decaying user data to keep context in conversational and voice experiences
What were we just talking about?
Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) SDK for Node.js V2: what's new, what's changed, what's gone
What's new in ASK SDK for Node.js V2 and how it compares to V1
Actions on Google SDK V2 Preview: Intent Handling
How to handle inbound intents for Actions on Google V2
Actions on Google SDK V2 Preview: SSML Utilities
A utility to create SSML for Actions on Google
Alexa Skills Kit BodyTemplate 7
The newest member of the BodyTemplate family.
Alexa SSML Audio Embed Gotchas
Things to look out for when using the audio tag in SSML and Alexa
Year in Review: 2017 in Voice-First News for Actions on Google/Google Assistant Developers
The biggest news for Google Home application developers in 2017
Speed Up Your Alexa Skill Deployment to Lambda
Decrease the time necessary to make changes on AWS Lambda for your Alexa skill
Alexa Skill Beta Testers Not Receiving Emails
Why your beta testers might not be receiving their invitations
Year in Review: 2017 in Voice-First News for Alexa Developers
The biggest news for Alexa skills developers in 2017
AWS re:Invent Day 5 Notes
Notes from Day 5 Sessions of AWS re:Invent
AWS re:Invent Day 4 Notes
Notes from Day 4 Sessions of AWS re:Invent
AWS re:Invent Day 3 Notes
Notes from Day 3 Sessions of AWS re:Invent
AWS re:Invent Day 2 Notes
Notes from Day 2 Sessions of AWS re:Invent
AWS re:Invent Day 1 Notes
Notes from Day 1 Sessions of AWS re:Invent
Adding DynamoDB Permissions to ASK CLI Created Skills
Dig into IAM to make your skill work
The EventParser utility in the Alexa Skills Kit Node.js SDK
The newly added EventParser class in the ASK Node.js SDK
Skill events for the Alexa Skills Kit
Get notified when lifecycle events happen for your skill
Quick Tip: Inverted questions on Alexa skills
Don't forget about this way of launching a skill.
The Text and Image Utilities in the Alexa Skills Kit Node.js SDK
The utilities to create text and image objects for the ASK Node.js SDK
No handler function was defined for event error in Alexa Skills Kit Node.js SDK
One of the biggest fumbling points for beginners gets an improvement
Template builders in the Alexa Skills Kit Node.js SDK
Helpers to assemble template objects
Fixing 'Error building interaction model: A sample utterance for a slot in the interaction model is invalid' error
Troublesome error in the Skill Builder
ResponseBuilder.js: building responses with Echo Show template support
The new ResponseBuilder.js
Alexa Skill Card image shown on Echo Show, but not on website
Problems with images not showing on website
EmitWithState: the final piece of alexa.js for the Node.JS Alexa Skills Kit SDK
EmitWithState: the final piece of Alexa.js
ResponseBuilder: This is what makes the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js talk
The ResponseBuilder builds the response
When does Google Assistant recognize users?
Relevant to multi-user actions.
News Roundup: August 4, 2017
What's new and relevant.
The Algolia Alexa Adapter hits 1.0
The Algolia Alexa Adapter is officially at 1.0.
RegisterHandlers: Yes, we're listening on the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js
Up next in the Dig Deep series is RegisterHandlers.
Perspectives on Building the Algolia Alexa Adapter
Why build the Algolia Alexa Adapter and what were the considerations behind it?
EmitEvent: The traffic cop of the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js
We look now at the code for EmitEvent.
DynamoDB Attributes Helper: A continued in-depth analysis of the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js
We look now at the code that connects our skill to DynamoDB.
ValidateRequest: A continued in-depth analysis of the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js
A line-by-line view of the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js. Next up is ValidateRequest.
HandleLambdaEvent: A continued in-depth analysis of the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js
A line-by-line view of the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js. Next up is HandleLambdaEvent.
Saving State to DynamoDB Before Each Response
A look at a hidden part of the Alexa Skills Kit Node.js SDK.
An in-depth analysis of the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js
A line-by-line view of the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js.
When does SessionEndedRequest get invoked on the Alexa Skills Kit?
The SessionEndedRequest is important to get right, especially when you want to save the current session to DynamoDB (in essence, persist the state across different sessions). However, like the LaunchRequest, you won’t define this in your intent schema. So when does it get invoked?
How an AWS Lambda Function Works on a High Level
A high level view of how an AWS Lambda function works.