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Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

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Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#71
post #13

Earlier 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…

My toddler can’t turn Google Home on. He have probably tried over 300 times the last year. Seems like it is not trained on enough child voices in foreign languages. I had to record my voice for him on the iPad, so he can use it. Just with the short “Hey Google”, in Norwegian.

He pronounces it correct. The only difference is the high pitch/tone of a child.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#72
post #55

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.

I honestly don't like my search results mingled with the advertising industry: there is bias in all results, you can't trust in information if it is not impartial. People used to create content to advance knowledge, but the amount of crap nowadays motivated my money (even if it is good quality) concerns me about the education of the human civilization as a whole. "The love of money (greed) is the root of all evil": G…

I think there's a great opportunity now for a new search engine that evaluates the general spamminess of a site, and then punishes sites that link to spammy sites.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#74
Good. Seriously. It's impossible to compete with Google on Search if you don't have a trillion dollars.

Apple is one of the few companies in the position to make a small dent. I suspect others here may disagree, but I wouldn't even hate to see them absorb and improve duck duck go.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#75
post #13

Earlier 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…

On what planet is talking to your phone easier or faster than taking 2 seconds to tap the your email app and skim the headers O_o

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#76
re: ""iOS and iPadOS 14 beta bypasses Google Search with Spotlight Search""

I just updated my iPad Pro to the latest 14 beta this morning, tried Splotlight search, and I didn't see this effect.

EDIT: I forgot to add that I look forward to a privacy respecting search from Apple.

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#77
post #13
post #6

If it's anything like Siri, I'll pass. Went back to the iOS ecosystem last year after being in Android/Google land for the past decade. I used Google Assistant on a daily basis easily 20-30 times and 99% of the time it got me what I needed. Siri can't even do a 1/10th of the things I used GA for, and that 1/10th that it does, it does so poorly that I don't even bother anymore.

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.

I use mine to set timers and "navigate to X"

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#78

But Apple's model is selling premium products and a search is a massive expense for apparently zero benefit to them (they wouldn't launch ads would they?). Plus their web results will probably be strictly censored and say goodbye to open web. It would be a nice dream though, google having some serious competition.

They're very clearly shifting to software and other media as they get more of the hardware marketshare. The spend on Apple TV+ is massive.

>Plus their web results will probably be strictly censored and say goodbye to open web

Based on what? The app store and the web are vastly different beasts, and Apple knows this. (Plus it's not like Google is doing the open web any favors, just look at AMP).

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#79
post #65

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.

Maybe they should build their own indexing backend and buy up DuckDuckGo for the frontend/user base/etc.

[deleted]

Re: Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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…

On what planet is talking to your phone easier or faster than taking 2 seconds to tap the your email app and skim the headers O_o

Some phones and earbuds have dedicated buttons for this, making it faster to use that than switch between apps.
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