The Future of Voice Search Is Open & Accessible Voice Recognition Tech: Q&A With Mozilla

One of the biggest limiting factors in widespread implementation of voice search is data access.

– Lindsey Shepard, chief marketing officer, Mozilla

From consumer technology to the jewelry industry, Lindsey Shepard, chief marketing officer, Mozilla has walked an untraditional career path. Shepard leads the global marketing strategy for the organization. She loves building ambitious and resilient teams that thrive on taking on the biggest challenges and truly believes “if it’s worth doing, it’s not going to be easy”.

In this edition of MarTalk Buzz, Shepard discusses the issues around big tech, consumer online privacy, and the dangers of social media algorithms. She also talks about how Mozilla is geared to improve customer experience using voice search technology and suggests a few new independent tech companies’ marketers can use to steer clear from internet tracking and unauthentic consumer data collection.

Key Takeaways on Why the Future of Voice Technology Is Open Source: 

• • You need a lot of data to train models to make that voice search functional.
  • Usually, those data sets are only held by massive companies.
  • Open-source voice dataset will make voice recognition open and accessible to everyone

Here’s the edited transcript from our exclusive interview with Lindsey Shepard: 

1. With issues around big tech, online privacy and the dangers of social media algorithms are becoming more mainstream. How is Mozilla laying the foundation for a consumer-friendly browsing experience, which is not dependent on algorithms?

Today people experience a myriad of problems online, companies making money off the data they collect on you, the spread of misinformation, and political manipulation, and platforms that do everything possible to keep eyeballs on their content and on the platform. Our products are about giving control back to people.

Using the Firefox browser does the heavy lifting for people so they can use the web without all the hassle. In fact, in the last few years since we began turning on Enhanced Tracking Protection, we have blocked 5.2 trillion trackers for people using Firefox.

-Lindsey Shepard, chief marketing officer, Mozilla

With Pocket, we are helping people capture and spend time with content that matters to them, without their activity being monetized behind their backs. And with Mozilla VPN we are providing an open-source way to protect your entire device from security threats.

Also read: Web-Browser Extensions for Ecommerce Businesses: Key Impact and Opportunity Analysis

2. Voice search optimization is gaining popularity day by day. In what ways is Mozilla geared to improve customer experience using voice search technology?

One of the biggest limiting factors in widespread implementation of voice search is data access, you need a lot of data to train models to make that voice search functional, and usually those data sets are only held by massive companies.

Mozilla wanted to address that discrepancy at its core, and so created Common Voice. Common VoiceOpens a new window is the world’s largest multilingual open-source voice dataset in the world, built to help make voice recognition open and accessible to everyone.

-Lindsey Shepard, chief marketing officer, Mozilla

No other data set is as diverse and much of that is thanks to the community that rallies around this Mozilla project, to contribute their voice samples. That community multiplies immensely the power of the small internal team working on it.

And, as a result, as of December 2020, we had gathered over 9,000 hours of speech data in 60 languages. As our CEO likes to say, it will take many more people to build a better internet, than us at Mozilla.

Also read: How Can Local Businesses Maximize the Potential of Voice Search?

3. What are some of the new independent tech companies’ that marketers can use instead of the big tech companies to steer clear from internet tracking and customer data collection?

Aside from choosing a browser that does not track you, I think we’d be crazy to not acknowledge that this last year in particular, we’ve all had to figure out different ways of connecting. One thing that is hysterical to me is how many messaging platforms I use, and how they are all for different groups of people or for different things.

I think SignalOpens a new window is probably the most underrated messaging app in the world. It’s just super simple, there’s no bullshit, it’s encrypted so you don’t have to worry about it as much. And it’s really easy to connect with people via Signal. It’s candidly as easy as WhatsApp but without the Facebook element to it.

-Lindsey Shepard, chief marketing officer, Mozilla

JumboOpens a new window is an app I like that allows you to control the privacy of others.

ProtonMailOpens a new window is one of the best options for email, because your communications won’t be scanned to generate ads and manipulate you in other ways.

And MediumOpens a new window is a great place to follow amazing thinkers and writers and not be tracked by creepy advertising.

4. The ultimate outcomes of Google’s antitrust lawsuit should not cause collateral damage to the browser market. How do you plan to drive competition and protect the interests of consumers on the web? What are the opportunities and challenges?

A competitive web is central to a healthy web ecosystem.  And we need to see change in the ecosystem. Part of Mozilla’s work has always been helping regulators, policymakers, and others to understand the interrelation of components of the web ecosystem and work on ways to really empower consumers.

We have been on a mission to fix the internet over the last two decades. We are focused on continuing this important work. We have a long track record of creating innovative products and services that respect the privacy and security of consumers and have successfully pushed the market to follow suit on tracking protection and DoH, among others.

-Lindsey Shepard, chief marketing officer, Mozilla

Also read: How Will Google’s December Core Updates Affect You?

5. How is the Mozilla positioned to build the internet of tomorrow? Which data points will fuel Mozilla’s mission and work to build a better internet?

The open, global internet is the most powerful communication and collaboration resource we have seen. It enables new opportunities for learning, building a sense of shared humanity, and solving the pressing problems people face everywhere.

We learned that we should more explicitly set out our aspirations for the human experience of the internet. We are committed to an internet that includes all the peoples of the earth, where a person’s demographic characteristics do not determine their online access, opportunities, or quality of experience.

An internet with these qualities will not come to life on its own. Individuals and organizations must embed these aspirations into internet technology and into the human experience with the internet. We aim to work together with people and organizations everywhere who share these goals, to make the internet an even better place for everyone. And we can do this using data, we simply believe very strongly in sticking to very strong data privacy principles as we do it.

Also read: How Big Tech Plans To Protect Democracy: Google Announces Its New Measures for the Election Day

6. What is your ongoing ‘Unfck the Internet’ campaign about? Can you share a detailed roadmap of how internet users can take to clean up the internet?

The internet is a beautiful and powerful thing, something Mozilla has fought to protect and defend for the last 20 years. With so much noise, chaos, and division, it seems that one of the only things we all have in common is relying on the internet to help us navigate everything that’s happening in the world. Now more than ever, the internet needs attention, which is why we want to “unfck it.” This a campaign that keeps it real and speaks to people in the way they communicate every day.

We start with 6 concrete ways they can take to reclaim what is good about life online by clearing out the bad, and get some credit for doing it:

• • Hold political advertisers accountable for misinformation: Firefox extension shares the ads you see on Facebook to a public database, so those ads can be tracked and monitored.
  • Watch the Social Dilemma on Netflix & read our recommended readings from diverse voices: This documentary unpacks the issues of the attention economy, and our compendium broadens the discussion by bringing up more perspectives to the conversation.
  • Get the Facebook Container extension: Prevent Facebook from following you around the rest of the web. And remember they can do that even if you do not have an account.
  • Flag bad YouTube recommendations: We recommend an extension that lets you report regrettable recommendations you have been served, so you can help make the engine better for everyone.
  • Choose independent tech: Learn more about other independent tech companies and their products. Like shopping locally, using independent products is a great way to vote with your conscience online.
  • Share, share, share: And ask your friends to do the same.

7. What is the future of browsers – how developers and users can inform this space?

I can speak to what we are doing here. Firefox will still be a key part of our investment in products and services that provide healthy alternatives to Big Tech. It is the browser you choose if you know what the hell is going on. But we’re also experimenting beyond this, with projects such as the Mozilla Builders InitiativeOpens a new window and our work in Africa Opens a new window with AfriLabs and other partners. We are striving to have huge impact with relatively few people and help other people to have impact too.

The discovery networks of search, advertising and social networks are not serving people as well as they could. So, we are going to build products that guide you through the internet so you can enjoy it more, instead of leaving that all up to Big Tech.

-Lindsey Shepard, chief marketing officer, Mozilla

We have worked for a long time on filtering out the worst of the internet, and that work does not stop, but it’s time for us to focus on amplifying more of the best of the internet. We are building a set of shared capabilities and putting them in products that grow the business.

About Lindsey ShepardOpens a new window :

As chief marketing officer, Lindsey Shepard leads Mozilla’s global marketing strategy and organization. In this role, she guides the team to find new ways to attract people to our new products and Firefox browsers, in a period when there has never been a greater need for privacy-focused solutions to the challenges of online life.

Previously, Lindsey was vice president of product marketing, with responsibility for overseeing new product launches, nurturing existing products, ideating on key campaigns and go-to-market strategies, and evangelizing new innovations in internet technologies to drive Mozilla’s future growth.

About MozillaOpens a new window :

Mozilla’s corporate structure guarantees that every decision the company makes upholds their mission: to ensure the internet remains open and accessible. Beholden to either shareholders or investors, Mozilla Corporation is wholly owned by the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation.

Along with their communities of 20,000+ contributors and collaborators, Mozilla Corporation’s staff designs, builds, and distributes software that allows people to enjoy the internet on their own terms. The company’s flagship product, the Firefox browser, has expanded into a family of products that protects users and alerts them of risks, safeguards passwords and provides a secure VPN (with more to come).

About MarTalk Buzz:

MarTalk Buzz is an interview series where marketing leaders and marketing technology companies that are making a difference, connect with us and share their stories. Join us as we talk to them about their product journeys, insights on the categories they serve, what works for them, and some bonus pro-tips.

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