Google Assistant Introduces ‘My Wine Guide,’ A Virtual Sommelier

There are many reasons to enjoy drinking wine and many ways to enhance that enjoyment, but none more so than knowing exactly which wines go with what food. Google Assistant just added “My Wine Guide” to its list of actionable services and it is meant to be a virtual sommelier. To know what type of wine would go well with steak, pasta, or cheese, users simply have to ask.

Google actually added a total of ten conversation actions that can be initiated by simply speaking with devices that contain the Google Assistant service, Android Headlines reports. These include a new service that can tell dog owners if particular foods are safe to feed their pets with called “Dr. Doggy.” That last part can be particularly important since, as any animal lover will likely already know, certain foods that are okay for humans to eat can be harmful to dogs.

In any case, the new additions are very specific services that will likely only apply to a very narrow set of conditions and would only interest a few users. However, this is all part of Google’s efforts to basically cover all of its bases to provide an all-encompassing service that will provide users with everything they could possibly want in one voice-activated platform.

Thanks to its decision to provide third-party developers with access to the technology, the search engine giant’s ambitions will likely get a speed boost. This is to its great advantage since Amazon’s Alexa is currently dominating the market and showing no signs of slowing down.

In fact, the online retail giant recently announced that its smart assistant already has over 8,000 skills at its disposal, VentureBeat reports. This puts it significantly ahead of the curve of its competitors that happen to include Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Then again, some users will gladly take advantage of a service that can tell them which Red goes well with roast chicken, so it’s a win for them.