Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

engadget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 166 posts

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#21

Post by lucas_membrane »

JasonFruit wrote: post #3

I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm getting tired of having everything good replaced by a mediocre version that offers debatable convenience. A meh guitar tuner, a phone tree that usually understands my spoken choices, the opportunity to enter my claim information online and be questioned by an impersonal overseas operator later instead of just talking with my agent — none of these are developments that improv…

> meh

I agree. The in-tune reading is about plus/minus 5 cents (1 cent = 0.01 half steps). It is not nearly as precise or even as quick to determine the pitch as wtuner or lingot or the $14 D'addario clip-on tuner or even the korg vocal pitch trainer.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#22

Post by lucas_membrane »

analog31 wrote: post #18
jholman wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's disruption, in the sense intended by Clayton M. Christensen. Walmart was never going to provide a better service than Whole Foods (or some equivalent-to-WF store that predates Walmart, since I'm sure there are some). But it might provide a service that's 80% as good, at 20% of the price. And if it does, you might buy it. Are you under the impression that it's no longer possible to install a dedicated guitar-tu…

If you look for a tuner app in the Android app store, there are like thousands of choices. Most of them are adware, or they don't register my double bass very well. I would have no idea where to begin looking for an app that is better in some way, or that even works. That market has pretty much disrupted itself. Fortunately I learned to tune by ear, so a tuner app is really a first world problem.

With on-line music sessions now spanning the globe, and only a small minority of people able to achieve perfect absolute pitch, standard pitch is the lingua franca of internet music, and should be widely useful.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#23

Post by tarunm »

tarunm wrote: post #19

Isn't this another blatant case of Google abusing its position of being the gate-keeper of internet and pushing its feature above the websites that exists with the same feature for years? Same as it has been doing for things like online calculators, weather sites, currency conversions and so on. Worse is that they don't have to really play by the rules of SEO. Any other website with tuners or weather forecasts have t…

To the downvoters: I would love to hear your counter argument and change my view.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#24

Post by xeromal »

bjt wrote: post #17
jholman wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's disruption, in the sense intended by Clayton M. Christensen. Walmart was never going to provide a better service than Whole Foods (or some equivalent-to-WF store that predates Walmart, since I'm sure there are some). But it might provide a service that's 80% as good, at 20% of the price. And if it does, you might buy it. Are you under the impression that it's no longer possible to install a dedicated guitar-tu…

OK but, is Google really trying to disrupt the guitar tuner market? This isn't them trying to disrupt an incumbent. It's a neat hack from a company with more money than they know what to do with.

It's most likely from Google's dev time program where a dev gets to work on a pet project 20%(?) of their time. That's why a ton of new projects come out of google but get canned in a few years.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#25

Post by judge2020 »

smelendez wrote: post #4

The strange thing is, so far, you have to know about this to find it. If you just search "guitar tuner," it doesn't come up. You have to put "Google [instrument] tuner" with various instrument names or just "Google tuner."

Probably trying to build a case that they're just trying to compete, not steal traffic from existing sources via their position as the search provider.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#26

Post by harry8 »

xeromal wrote: post #24
bjt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK but, is Google really trying to disrupt the guitar tuner market? This isn't them trying to disrupt an incumbent. It's a neat hack from a company with more money than they know what to do with.

It's most likely from Google's dev time program where a dev gets to work on a pet project 20%(?) of their time. That's why a ton of new projects come out of google but get canned in a few years.

Does that still exist as a policy?

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#27

Post by harry8 »

tarunm wrote: post #23
tarunm wrote: post #19

Isn't this another blatant case of Google abusing its position of being the gate-keeper of internet and pushing its feature above the websites that exists with the same feature for years? Same as it has been doing for things like online calculators, weather sites, currency conversions and so on. Worse is that they don't have to really play by the rules of SEO. Any other website with tuners or weather forecasts have t…

To the downvoters: I would love to hear your counter argument and change my view.

The argument right now would likely be that it doesn't show up in the google search for "guitar tuner" and needs "google guitar tuner" to be found coupled with an assumption that this is how it will always be.

It's a fair enough argument. But they should make it in response not just downvote like so many google employees not wishing to engage with a discussion about abuse of market power at all. I think I tend more toward your point of view personally, what is now isn't what will always be in search engine rankings etc, but there it is.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#28

Post by Agentlien »

tarunm wrote: post #19

Isn't this another blatant case of Google abusing its position of being the gate-keeper of internet and pushing its feature above the websites that exists with the same feature for years? Same as it has been doing for things like online calculators, weather sites, currency conversions and so on. Worse is that they don't have to really play by the rules of SEO. Any other website with tuners or weather forecasts have t…

I didn't downvote but I do disagree. I see this argument often, but in practice the Google widgets tend to be well implemented and allow me to get the information I want even quicker. That's exactly the purpose of a search engine. It makes me a satisfied user.

I really don't have a problem with them denying traffic to other sites by providing users with information directly.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#29

Post by mhh__ »

lucas_membrane wrote: post #21
JasonFruit wrote: post #3

I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm getting tired of having everything good replaced by a mediocre version that offers debatable convenience. A meh guitar tuner, a phone tree that usually understands my spoken choices, the opportunity to enter my claim information online and be questioned by an impersonal overseas operator later instead of just talking with my agent — none of these are developments that improv…

> meh I agree. The in-tune reading is about plus/minus 5 cents (1 cent = 0.01 half steps). It is not nearly as precise or even as quick to determine the pitch as wtuner or lingot or the $14 D'addario clip-on tuner or even the korg vocal pitch trainer.

But who doesn't own one of those if they care?

The last time I used a crummy app based guitar tuner was on a guitar at a friend's house that was basically a prop and no one played (so no tuner, also thank you Brian may for using a coin as a pick).

Post reply on HN