I hope they do – Google is far, far, far too dominant in this space, and small-ish incumbents don't really stand a chance. If they keep up their privacy-friendly stance, this could really become something neat. I'd like for at least a little bit of competition in the gatekeeper-for-human-knowledge space.
Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
51–60 of 198 posts
Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#52Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
What sort of tasks were you using GA for? I use mine to turn a smart plug on or off, and set a timer when cooking. Nothing else I've ever wanted to do via my Pixel 2 is reliable enough to waste time trying. Sending a WhatsApp while driving is the one thing I keep wanting to do, but it's hopeless.
[Disclaimer: I work on Google Assistant. I just started though; I'm much more of a user than an engineer at this point.] I use it a lot for media stuff. "Play by ", "Watch on Netflix", etc. My wife is very fond of the combined alarm + YouTube functionality: "Wake me up at 7:00 AM with deep meditation music". My toddler has learned to say "Hey Google watch videos of dump trucks". I use it a bunch for basic productivit…
Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Siri often fails even switching lights on and off, it can be very idiosyncratic in how it does and interprets stuff
I asked Siri to turn on my lights today. I was told that I did not have any lights set up. Then I rephrased my request to turn on the lights. "Coming right up". Of course, there's also the regular "I'm sorry, but some of your devices did not respond" response from my Watch, forcing me to issue the same command to my iPhone for it to work.
The underlying implementation must have basically no error case handling, because half the time I open the controls I'll get "device not responding".
Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#55I hope they do – Google is far, far, far too dominant in this space, and small-ish incumbents don't really stand a chance. If they keep up their privacy-friendly stance, this could really become something neat. I'd like for at least a little bit of competition in the gatekeeper-for-human-knowledge space.
Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#56~1/5 of Apple's Services revenue comes from having google be the default search ($9-10B per year), so I wonder if this new search will coincide with them ramping up their own search ads business [ https://9to5mac.com/2019/11/15/apple-ad-revenue/ ]
Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#57Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#58Google Maps is slightly superior to Apple Maps but the gap continues to narrow and it's possible that Apple will pull ahead. The competition between the two means that it's important for new features to be added and incorrect data to be fixed. On the other hand, Apple's search in the App Store app is so bad that I use DDG or Google to search for apps.
> Google Maps is slightly superior to Apple Maps but the gap continues to narrow and it's possible that Apple will pull ahead. How many places does Apple Maps have their version of Street View for?
Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
What sort of tasks were you using GA for? I use mine to turn a smart plug on or off, and set a timer when cooking. Nothing else I've ever wanted to do via my Pixel 2 is reliable enough to waste time trying. Sending a WhatsApp while driving is the one thing I keep wanting to do, but it's hopeless.
Basic things that I feel like should be trivial for Siri to handle. The biggest issue by far is how bad the voice dictation is for sending messages. It almost never gets it right. I'm not opposed to an Apple search engine if it works. Would happily use it. But the way Siri has stagnated doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence for me.
Well, maybe most people just don't find it that useful, as an idea, rather than as an implementation? I don't personally find myself wanting to talk to my phone, and I certainly don't want smart speakers listening to everything I say and giving it to intelligence agencies or whatever.
Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine
#60No, thanks. Apple is notoriously horrible when it comes to localization: Apple Maps (localization, regional maps, regional traffic data, turn by turn), iOS supported languages, Siri supported languages, their new Apple Translate that only has 7-8 languages, Spotlight suggestions, etc. They're also very slow to expand their services, I think Apple News still only supports 4 countries. Just buy DuckDuckGo