Amazon Alexa , or, Alexa , is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesizer named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Amazon Echo Dot , Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers developed by Amazon Lab126 . It is capable of natural language processing for tasks such as voice interaction, music playback, creating to-do lists, setting alarms , streaming podcasts , playing audiobooks , providing weather , traffic , sports , other real-time information and news . Alexa can also control several smart devices as a home automation system. Alexa capabilities may be extended by installing "skills" (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps ) such as weather programs and audio features. It performs these tasks using automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and other forms of weak AI .
53-584: Alexa Internet, Inc. was a web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco , California . It was founded as an independent company by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat in 1996. Alexa provided web traffic data, global rankings, and other information on over 30 million websites. It was acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $ 250 million in stock. Amazon discontinued the Alexa Internet service on May 1, 2022. Alexa estimated website traffic based on
106-601: A third-party -supplied Mozilla plug-in called Search Status for the Firefox browser served as the only option for Firefox users after Amazon abandoned its A9 toolbar. On July 16, 2007, Alexa released an official toolbar for Firefox called Sparky. On 16 April 2008, many users reported drastic shifts in their Alexa rankings. Alexa confirmed this later in the day with an announcement that they had released an updated ranking system, claiming that they would now take into account more sources of data "beyond Alexa Toolbar users". Using
159-488: A comprehensive set of Web services and APIs . These could be used, for instance, to construct vertical search engines that could run on Alexa's servers or elsewhere. In May 2006, Google was replaced by Windows Live Search as a provider of search results. In December 2006, Amazon released Alexa Image Search. Built in-house, it was the first major application built on the company's Web platform. In May 2007, Alexa changed their API to limit comparisons to three websites, reduce
212-463: A list of millions of songs. Amazon Music for PC allows one to play personal music from Google Play, iTunes, and others on an Alexa device. This can be done by uploading one's collection to My Music on Amazon from a computer. Up to 250 songs can be uploaded free of charge. Once this is done, Alexa can play this music and control playback through voice command options. Amazon Alexa allows the user to hear updates on supported sports teams. A way to do this
265-503: A message from an associated Echo device, it transmits as a voice message. Alexa cannot send attachments such as videos and photos. For households with more than one member, one's Alexa contacts are pooled across all of the devices that are registered to its associated account. However, within Alexa's app one is only able to start conversations with its Alexa contacts. When accessed and supported by an Alexa app or Echo device, Alexa messaging
318-690: A new "Brief Mode", wherein Alexa would begin responding with a beep sound rather than saying, "Okay", to confirm receipt of a command. On December 20, 2018, Amazon announced a new integration with the Wolfram Alpha answer engine , which provides enhanced accuracy for users asking questions of Alexa related to math, science, astronomy, engineering, geography, history, and more. Alexa can interact with devices from several manufacturers including SNAS , Fibaro, Belkin , ecobee, Geeni, IFTTT , Insteon , LIFX , LightwaveRF, Nest , Philips Hue , SmartThings , Wink , and Yonomi. The Home Automation feature
371-562: A number of browser extensions and from websites that had the Alexa script installed on their webpages. Alexa replaced their toolbar with browser extensions. These extensions were made available for Google Chrome and Firefox browsers. The Alexa browser extension displayed the Alexa Traffic Rank for websites, showed related websites, provided search analytics, and quickly allowed users to view the Internet Archive through
424-399: A partnership to make their smart home products work together. Amazon is enhancing Alexa with generative AI features using its Titan model, aiming to compete with AI like ChatGPT. The upgrade will be offered as a separate subscription service, potentially costing between $ 10 and $ 20 per month. There is no confirmed launch date yet. There are also humour related voice commands. One example
477-407: A question or command. When questions are asked, Alexa converts sound waves into text which allows it to gather information from various sources. Behind the scenes, the data gathered is then sometimes passed to a variety of suppliers including WolframAlpha , iMDB , AccuWeather , Yelp , Misplaced Pages , and others to generate suitable and accurate answers. Alexa-supported devices can stream music from
530-584: A sample of millions of Internet users using browser extensions as well as from sites that had chosen to install an Alexa script. As of 2020, its website was visited by over 400 million people every month. Alexa Internet was founded in April 1996 by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat . The company's name was chosen in homage to the Library of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt , drawing a parallel between
583-501: A specific audience subgroup was reluctant to take part in the rankings. This caused some controversies over how representative Alexa's user base was of typical Internet behavior, especially for less-visited sites. In 2007, Michael Arrington provided examples of Alexa rankings known to contradict data from the comScore web analytics service, including ranking YouTube ahead of Google. In 2021 John Mueller from Google confirmed again that Google does not use Amazon Alexa Rank. Until 2007,
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#1732780012938636-425: A webpage), and user time on the website . In the following weeks, Alexa added more features, including visitor demographics, clickstream , and web search traffic statistics. During this period, Alexa's algorithm had been evolving along with it. Statistics projection and the use of their technology associated with a large network of certificated websites allowed them to keep ahead of the website traffic metrics around
689-399: A website over a three-month period. The Alexa Traffic Rank could be used to monitor the popularity trend of a website and compare the popularity of different websites. The traffic rank used to be determined from data recollected from users that had the Alexa toolbar installed on their browser. As of 2020, Alexa did not use a toolbar; instead, it used data from users that had installed any of
742-553: A year later on September 15, 2020, Amazon announced Amitabh Bachchan as the new voice of Alexa in India. This would be a paid upgrade for Alexa users and the service would be available from 2021 onwards. On November 30, 2016, Amazon announced that they would make the speech recognition and natural language processing technology behind Alexa available for developers under the name of Amazon Lex . This new service would allow developers to create their own chatbots that can interact in
795-458: Is able to stream media and music directly. To do this, Alexa's device should be linked to the Amazon account, which enables access to one's Amazon Music library, in addition to any audiobooks available in one's Audible library. Amazon Prime members have an additional ability to access stations, playlists, and over two million songs free of charge. Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers also have access to
848-472: Is available for selected devices (excluding, for example, Chromebox devices) from the Apple Appstore , Google Play , and Amazon Appstore . The app can be used by owners of Alexa-enabled devices to install skills, control music, manage alarms, and view shopping lists. It also allows users to review the recognized text on the app screen and to send feedback to Amazon concerning whether the recognition
901-733: Is available in English and French (with the Quebec accent). In October 2019, Amazon announced the expansion of Alexa to Brazil, in Portuguese , together with Bose, Intelbras, and LG . In November 2019, Amazon introduced Echo Studio, a Dolby Atmos-compatible surround sound Alexa speaker. Hoped-for revenue never materialized from people using voice ordering for Amazon products or services from partners such as Domino's Pizza and Uber . Alexa does not play audio ads, and display ads were relatively unsuccessful. In 2019 an all-hands crisis meeting
954-428: Is available to anyone in one's household. These messages can be heard by anyone with access to the household. This messaging feature does not yet contain a password protection or associated PIN. Anyone who has access to one's cell phone number is able to use this feature to contact them through their supported Alexa app or Echo device. The feature to block alerts for messages and calls is available temporarily by utilizing
1007-527: Is by adding the sports team to the list created under Alexa's Sports Update app section. The user is able to hear updates on 15 supported sports leagues: As of November 27, 2021 , Echo Show 5 Devices do not show upcoming games. There are a number of ways messages can be sent from Alexa's application. Alexa can deliver messages to a recipient's Alexa application, as well as to all supported Echo devices associated with their Amazon account. Alexa can send typed messages only from Alexa's app. If one sends
1060-593: Is if you ask "Alexa, do you know GLaDOS ?", Alexa will reply with "We don't really talk after what happened". This is a nod to the Portal video game franchise. As of April 2019 , Amazon had over 90,000 functions ("skills") available for users to download on their Alexa-enabled devices, a massive increase from only 1,000 functions in June 2016. Microsoft 's AI Cortana became available to use on Alexa enabled devices as of August 2018 . In 2018, Amazon rolled out
1113-431: Is now a landing page for Amazon Alexa products. A key metric published from Alexa Internet analytics was the Alexa Traffic Rank, also simply known as Alexa Rank. It was also referred to as Global Rank by Alexa Internet and was designed to be an estimate of a website's popularity. As of May 2018, Alexa Internet's tooltip for Global Rank said the rank is calculated from a combination of daily visitors and page views on
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#17327800129381166-528: Is supported by Domino's Pizza , Grubhub , Pizza Hut , Seamless , and Wingstop . Also, users of Alexa in the UK can order meals via Just Eat . In early 2017, Starbucks announced a private beta for placing pick-up orders using Alexa. In addition, users can order meals using Amazon Prime Now via Alexa in 20 major US cities. With the introduction of Amazon Key in November 2017, Alexa also works together with
1219-627: Is the world's first employment service using voice command service. The service is available in the United States , Canada , Spain , France , Ireland , Germany , Italy , and the United Kingdom . Amazon announced on September 25, 2019, that Alexa will soon be able to mimic celebrities' voices including Samuel L. Jackson , costing $ 0.99 for each voice. In 2019, Alexa started replying to Spanish voice commands in Spanish . Almost
1272-752: The Alexa Prize was announced to further advance the technology. In January 2017, the first Alexa Conference took place in Nashville, Tennessee, an independent gathering of the worldwide community of Alexa developers and enthusiasts. Follow up conferences went under the name Project Voice and featured keynote speakers such as Amazon's Head of Education for Alexa, Paul Cutsinger. At the Amazon Web Services Re: Invent conference in Las Vegas, Amazon announced Alexa for Business and
1325-581: The Internet Archive with web crawls. In 1999, as the company moved away from its original vision of providing an "intelligent" search engine , Alexa was acquired by Amazon.com for approximately US$ 250 million in Amazon stock . Alexa began a partnership with Google in early 2002 and with the web directory DMOZ in January 2003. In December 2005, Alexa opened its extensive search index and Web-crawling facilities to third-party programs through
1378-585: The Alexa Pro service, website owners could sign up for "certified statistics", which allowed Alexa more access to a website's traffic data. Site owners input JavaScript code on each page of their website that, if permitted by the user's security and privacy settings, ran and sent traffic data to Alexa, allowing Alexa to display—or not display, depending on the owner's preference—more accurate statistics such as total page views and unique page views. Web traffic Too Many Requests If you report this error to
1431-529: The Alexa Skills. AVS provides cloud-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU). There are no fees for companies looking to integrate Alexa into their products by using AVS. The voice of Amazon Alexa is generated by a long short-term memory artificial neural network. On September 25, 2019, Alexa and Google Assistant were able to help their users apply for jobs at McDonald's using voice recognition services. It
1484-482: The Alexa app. A "Smart Home Skill API" is available, meant to be used by hardware manufacturers to allow users to control smart home devices . Most skills run code almost entirely in the cloud , using Amazon's AWS Lambda service. In April 2018, Amazon launched Blueprints, a tool for individuals to build skills for their personal use. In February 2019, Amazon further expanded the capability of Blueprints by allowing customers to publish skills they've built with
1537-502: The Alexa homepage, and the Alexa ranking of the website that the user is visiting. It also allowed the user to rate the website and view links to external, relevant websites. In early 2005, Alexa stated that there had been 10 million downloads of the toolbar, though the company did not provide statistics about active usage. Originally, web pages were only ranked amongst users who had the Alexa Toolbar installed, and could be biased if
1590-468: The Day" and "National Geographic Geo Quiz" for trivia; "TuneIn Live" to listen to live sporting events and news stations; "Big Sky" for hyper-local weather updates; "Sleep and Relaxation Sounds" for listening to calming sounds; "Sesame Street" for children's entertainment; and " Fitbit " for Fitbit users who want to check in on their health stats. In 2019, Apple , Google , Amazon, and Zigbee Alliance announced
1643-539: The Do Not Disturb feature. Alexa for Business is a paid subscription service allowing companies to use Alexa to join conference calls, schedule meeting rooms, and custom skills designed by 3rd-party vendors. At launch, notable skills are available from SAP , Microsoft , and Salesforce . Nowadays, Alexa Smart Properties is used for some purposes, one of them being healthcare, hospitality, senior living, success stories, and solution providers. This feature
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1696-780: The Echo Show generation. Alexa was developed out of a predecessor named Ivona which was invented in Poland, inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey and bought by Amazon in 2013. On November 6, 2014 ( 2014-November-06 ) , Amazon announced Alexa alongside the Echo. Alexa was inspired by the computer voice and conversational system on board the Starship Enterprise in science fiction TV series and movies, beginning with Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation . Amazon developers chose
1749-634: The United States. In December 2018, Alexa was built into the Anki Vector and was the first major update for the Anki Vector, although Vector was released in August 2018, it is the only home robot with advanced technology. As of 2018, interaction and communication with Alexa were available only in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Hindi. In Canada, Alexa
1802-584: The Wayback Machine. They were last updated in May 2020, two years prior to the service's closure. Alexa used to rank sites based primarily on tracking a sample set of Internet traffic—users of its browser toolbar for the Internet Explorer , Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers. The Alexa Toolbar included a popup blocker (which stops unwanted ads), a search box, links to Amazon.com and
1855-554: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 942382975 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:46:53 GMT Amazon Alexa Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word (such as Alexa or Amazon ); other devices (such as the Amazon mobile app on iOS or Android and Amazon Dash Wand) require
1908-481: The ability for app developers to have paid add-ons to their skills. In May 2018, Amazon announced it would include Alexa in 35,000 new homes built by Lennar . In November 2018, Amazon opened its first Alexa-themed pop-up shop inside of Toronto 's Eaton Centre , showcasing the use of home automation products with Amazon's smart speakers. Amazon also sells Alexa devices at Amazon Books and Whole Foods Market locations, in addition to mall-based pop-ups throughout
1961-495: The largest repository of knowledge in the ancient world and the potential of the Internet to become a similar store of knowledge. Alexa initially offered a toolbar that gave Internet users suggestions on where to go next based on the traffic patterns of its user community. The company also offered context for each site visited: to whom it was registered, how many pages it had, how many other sites pointed to it, and how frequently it
2014-599: The name Alexa because it has a hard consonant with the X, which helps it be recognized with higher precision. They have said the name is reminiscent of the Library of Alexandria , which was also used by Amazon Alexa Internet for the same reason. In June 2015, Amazon announced the Alexa Fund, a program that would invest in companies making voice control skills and technologies. The US$ 200 million fund has invested in companies including Jargon, Ecobee , Orange Chef, Scout Alarm, Garageio , Toymail, MARA, and Mojio. In 2016,
2067-425: The owner's Amazon Music accounts and have built-in support for Pandora and Spotify accounts. Alexa can play music from streaming services such as Apple Music and Google Play Music from a phone or tablet. In addition to performing pre-set functions, Alexa can also perform additional functions through third-party skills that users can enable. Some of the most popular Alexa skills in 2018 included "Question of
2120-430: The public for more than 25 years. From that day on, it was no longer possible to create accounts or buy subscriptions on the service. The statement first published on its website specifies the total cessation of the service as of May 1, 2022. Existing subscriptions would be available until May 1, 2022, UTC, after which everything on the site would be removed and replaced with an "End of Service Notice". The alexa.com domain
2173-464: The recent surge in usage of smart home devices connected to Alexa has led to a corresponding 100% increase in requests to Alexa for controlling compatible home appliances like smart lights, fans, plugs, TVs etc. The fastest growing categories are smart fans and ACs, which saw 37% increase in usage over the past year - the highest growth amongst all smart home devices. Take-out food can be ordered using Alexa; as of May 2017 food ordering using Alexa
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2226-544: The size of embedded graphs in Flash , and add mandatory embedded BritePic advertisements. In April 2007, the company filed a lawsuit, Alexa v. Hornbaker, to stop trademark infringement by the Statsaholic service. In the lawsuit, Alexa alleged that Ron Hornbaker was stealing traffic graphs for profit and that the primary purpose of his site was to display graphs that were generated by Alexa's servers. Hornbaker had removed
2279-957: The smart lock and the Alexa Cloud Cam included in the service to allow Amazon couriers to unlock customers' front doors and deliver packages inside. According to an August 2018 article by The Information, only 2 percent of Alexa owners have used the device to make a purchase during the first seven months of 2018 and of those who made an initial purchase, 90 percent did not make a second purchase. Alexa supports many subscription-based and free streaming services on Amazon devices. These streaming services include Prime Music, Amazon Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music , TuneIn , iHeartRadio , Audible, Pandora , and Spotify Premium. However, some of these music services are not available on other Alexa-enabled products that are manufactured by companies external of its services. This unavailability also includes Amazon's own Fire TV devices or tablets. Alexa
2332-525: The templates to its Alexa Skill Store in the US for use by anyone with an Alexa-enabled device. Amazon allows device manufacturers to integrate Alexa voice capabilities into their own connected products by using the Alexa Voice Service (AVS), a cloud-based service that provides APIs to interface with Alexa. Products built using AVS have access to Alexa's growing list of capabilities including all of
2385-544: The term Alexa from his service name on March 19, 2007. On November 27, 2008, Amazon announced that Alexa Web Search was no longer accepting new customers and that the service would be deprecated or discontinued for existing customers on January 26, 2009. Thereafter, Alexa became a purely analytics-focused company. On March 31, 2009, Alexa revealed a major website redesign. The redesigned site provided new web traffic metrics, including average page views per individual user, bounce rate (the rate of users who come to and then leave
2438-482: The user to click a button to activate Alexa's listening mode, although, some phones also allow a user to say a command, such as "Alexa, or Alexa go to bed" or "Alexa wake". As of November 2018 , more than 10,000 Amazon employees worked on Alexa and related products. In January 2019, Amazon's devices team announced that they had sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices. In September 2019, Amazon launched many new devices achieving many records while competing with
2491-457: The world's smart home industry. The new Echo Studio became the first smart speaker with 360 sound and Dolby sound. Other new devices included an Echo dot with a clock behind the fabric, a new third-generation Amazon Echo, Echo Show 8, a plug-in Echo device, Echo Flex, Alexa built-in wireless earphones, Echo buds, Alexa built-in spectacles, Echo frames, an Alexa built-in Ring, and Echo Loop as well as
2544-423: The world. Because of this, many large sites were using it as the main reference for popularity on the internet. On November 6, 2014, Amazon announced Amazon Alexa , their virtual assistant . Amazon already had trademarks for Alexa due to their ownership of Alexa Internet, Inc. On December 8, 2021, Amazon announced the cessation of its website ranking and competitive analysis service, which has been available to
2597-476: Was called to address the issue, and a hiring freeze was instated. In 2022, with the division losing several billion dollars per quarter, the company started laying off Alexa employees en masse. Echo Show devices began serving hidable ads for Alexa skills and other products in December 2022, followed by ads promoting shopping for specific products on Amazon (which respawn quicker) in November 2023. A companion app
2650-414: Was good or bad. Alexa can perform a number of preset functions out-of-the-box such as set timers, share the current weather, create lists, access Misplaced Pages articles, and many more things. Users say a designated "wake word" (the default is simply "Alexa") to alert an Alexa-enabled device of an ensuing function command. Alexa listens for the command and performs the appropriate function, or skill, to answer
2703-665: Was included in February 2020, in which the digital assistant can notify the user when a severe weather warning is issued in that area. From February 2020, Alexa can update users about their commute, traffic conditions, or directions. It can also send the information to the user's phone. Amazon allows developers to build and publish skills for Alexa using the Alexa Skills Kit known as Alexa Skills. These third-party-developed skills, once published, are available across Alexa-enabled devices. Users can enable these skills using
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#17327800129382756-483: Was launched on April 8, 2015. Developers are able to create their own smart home skills using the Alexa Skills Kit . In September 2018, Amazon announced a microwave oven that can be paired and controlled with an Echo device. It is sold under Amazon's AmazonBasics label. Alexa can now pair with a Ring doorbell Pro and greet visitors and leave instructions about where to deliver packages. As per Amazon,
2809-501: Was updated. Alexa's operations grew to include the archiving of web pages as they are "crawled" and examined by an automated computer program (nicknamed a "bot" or "web crawler"). This database served as the basis for the creation of the Internet Archive , accessible through the Wayback Machine . In 1998, the company donated a copy of the archive, two terabytes in size, to the Library of Congress . Alexa continued to supply
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