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We will be retiring Alexa.com

support.alexa.com

51–60 of 254 posts

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#51
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short, international, neutral name, somewhat easy to pronounce in many languages.

It's also phonetically recognizable and distinct. It's one of the reasons you have to say "Hey Google" or "Hey Siri", but you're able to just say "Alexa" I find Siri the worst one for that, it often triggers on "serious".

My “Hey Siri” triggers on the first attempt 25% of the time (neutral North American accent).

I wonder if it’s a slow wake-from-sleep issue or something.

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#53
post #28

That Amazon kept a site named Alexa with absolutely nothing to do with that Alexa alive for this long is quite impressive.

Oh jeez, it wasn't until your comment that I remembered the original Alexa. It used to be so big, too!

This is literally a post about the original Alexa closing down.

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also phonetically recognizable and distinct. It's one of the reasons you have to say "Hey Google" or "Hey Siri", but you're able to just say "Alexa" I find Siri the worst one for that, it often triggers on "serious".

If our Google Home triggers accidentally its usually easy to think back on what we said and find the offending phrase. Siri, on the other hand, seems to trigger several times a day without any explanation.

I wonder if the problem is the /s/ sound at the beginning of Siri.

Since it's a fricative, it sounds like the hissing noise produced by other kinds of turbulent flow.

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#55
post #29

Wow, that is a bummer! Alexa is my go-to place to get a first impression on how much traffic a website gets. I have never looked into how they get their data, I always assumed they get it from internet providers? Is there an alternative? SimilarWeb publishes their data with a huge delay, so it is not of much use for me. From my experience, it is also less reliable. It is crazy how valuable internet properties get clo…

I've loaded in Alexa, Majestic, Cisco DNS, and Tranco rankings into this site: https://domain.glass/ycombinator.com#dns_rank Not the prettiest, but I use it a fair amount myself for researching domains.

Damn, with that data TikTok.com is ranked #1 O_O

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#56
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also been a popular name for decades, http://www.ourbabynamer.com/Alexa-name-popularity.html . IMO, picking one of the most common US names for a voice assistant and then skipping the wake up phrase is dumb.

> one of the most common US names With ~125k total names since the 1940's, it's not really close to one of the most common in the US; just one that was in the top 100 for 2 decades.

I'd say top 100 for about the last 25 years makes it pretty common. What surprises me a bit is that it didn't fall off a cliff after Amazon's Alexa came out.

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also phonetically recognizable and distinct. It's one of the reasons you have to say "Hey Google" or "Hey Siri", but you're able to just say "Alexa" I find Siri the worst one for that, it often triggers on "serious".

The nice thing about "OK Google" was that it sounded a lot like "Cocaine Poodle", so you could imagine your personal assistant was a hyperactive creature of limited intelligence. Which honestly, sets expectations appropriately.

"Hay Poodle" seems, if not quite as good, to be in the same spirit.

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#58
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short, international, neutral name, somewhat easy to pronounce in many languages.

It's also phonetically recognizable and distinct. It's one of the reasons you have to say "Hey Google" or "Hey Siri", but you're able to just say "Alexa" I find Siri the worst one for that, it often triggers on "serious".

"Let's, uhh..." is a pretty common sentence starter in conversation and has been observed to trigger Alexa before.

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#59
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've loaded in Alexa, Majestic, Cisco DNS, and Tranco rankings into this site: https://domain.glass/ycombinator.com#dns_rank Not the prettiest, but I use it a fair amount myself for researching domains.

Damn, with that data TikTok.com is ranked #1 O_O

The world suddenly makes sense doesn’t it?

Re: We will be retiring Alexa.com

#60
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh jeez, it wasn't until your comment that I remembered the original Alexa. It used to be so big, too!

This is literally a post about the original Alexa closing down.

Yes, and I saw that comment first and remembered there was another Alexa.
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