It has been a few weeks since giving some initial impressions of the Google Home Mini. Since then, more time has been spent living with it, giving it commands, and assimilating into my daily life. The experience is quite interesting, in that, this is the first smart speaker I have ever used or owned. While this might seem like a huge statement, it really isn't. If you're the owner of a smartphone, chances are you already use a digital assistant like Apple's Siri or the ?Google Assistant, and effectively, the speaker is a product that houses a digital assistant and can work independently of your handset.

I can honestly say, that in my normal daily use, on a handset, I rarely request help from the assistant and just look up what I'm looking for using search. In my opinion, this is much faster and can be more accurate. But, this only works when you have your hands free and can punch in the query. What happens if you're on the road driving or in the kitchen kneading out dough for cookies - this is when a voice-activated assistant can come in handy. This shows that there is a place for this kind of technology and it can co-exist with the more traditional means of searching or activating apps. But can Google's $49 Home Mini smart speaker be useful enough to make it a worthwhile purchase? Let's find out.