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Changes we're making to Google Assistant

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Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#151

Post by filedottsx »

RexM wrote: post #143
pflenker wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of what you mentioned in your first sentence, any ideas to improve discoverability are horrible. I hate it when Alexa does not play my podcast right away but explains to me how I can change episodes. I despise Alexa for telling me that I have some notification before starting my timer. And so on - any voice only attempt to explain me something without me asking for it means adding a lot of friction between me…

Yes... when it does anything other than what I ask, it makes me feel like it's wasting my time. Alexa recently started responding with "Good afternoon! " and it irks me more than it probably should. I've looked to see if I can turn it off and can't find the option. I don't need pleasantries from a machine.

I got slightly irritated by the "Good afternoon!" message earlier today. Especially because I had already used Alexa a few times before it did that.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#152

Post by tayloramurphy »

verelo wrote: post #92
leros wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The old Google Now feed was amazing. Showed me where my car is parked. Told me when to leave to arrive places in time. Pulled up my flight details automatically. Now it's just a bunch of click bait articles.

It’s almost like google intentionally kills good projects. I still miss Inbox more than anything. The snooze feature on an email was so amazing.

I've been using (and paying!) https://simpl.fyi/ for a few years now and it makes up for missing inbox for me. It was founded by the design lead for Inbox. Highly recommend if you use a Chromium-based browser.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#153

Post by progbits »

fsmv wrote: post #133
bilalq wrote: post #87

For all the hype "AI" gets these days, it's amazing how much things have regressed. My Android phone used to remember where I parked and show it on my Google Now feed and a push notification as I headed out, all without ever asking it to do anything. The travel.google.com site used to show my itineraries without ever adding them there. Hotels, flights, car rentals, and more would be aggregated. Doesn't do that anymor…

The new DMA law prevents combining data across products

Also, some companies stopped including the essential data in the email itself, eg. eshops won't list the products or tracking numbers directly in the order confirmation email, but only link to their website where gmail can't extract it. I think I've seen some airlines do the same, though most do include a boarding pass attachment.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#154

Post by 0xcafefood »

fsmv wrote: post #133
bilalq wrote: post #87

For all the hype "AI" gets these days, it's amazing how much things have regressed. My Android phone used to remember where I parked and show it on my Google Now feed and a push notification as I headed out, all without ever asking it to do anything. The travel.google.com site used to show my itineraries without ever adding them there. Hotels, flights, car rentals, and more would be aggregated. Doesn't do that anymor…

The new DMA law prevents combining data across products

Does it prevent it? I thought it just required explicit consent from users.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#156

Post by 0xcafefood »

twisteriffic wrote: post #128
Workaccount2 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google needs to toss Sundar and get a competent CEO who can forcefully smash the org back into line. Google has turned into these little micro clusters of ideologies and functional philosophies, leading to a horrifically fragmented mess of google branded products. All which come loaded now with end-of-life anxiety as google just farts out products that seem to dissipate just as fast. The fact that most google apps fu…

> Google has turned into these little micro clusters of ideologies and functional philosophies, leading to a horrifically fragmented mess Every large software org eventually becomes Microsoft.

Google would be lucky to become another Microsoft. As things are going now, it's likelier to become another IBM.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#157

Post by wolverine876 »

pkulak wrote: post #61
afavour wrote: post #30

To me this highlights the core failure with all these voice-driven UIs: you have absolutely no idea what is possible and what isn't. Discoverability is zero, which makes big changes like this even more disruptive. I've already decided that I'm done with Google's smart assistant stuff in any case. I have a Google Home with a screen in my kitchen and the most-used feature (aside from just existing as a photo frame) was…

I still have a Google Home in the kitchen, but what I really want it to display is data from my weather station, transit info, the time, etc. I can't control that damn thing at all. I've got a TidByt coming today, which I have high hopes for!

Just setup a monitor with some browser windows on it? Or one browser window with a local page that embeds the info?

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#158

Post by 0xcafefood »

summerlight wrote: post #100

https://www.semafor.com/article/01/10/2024/google-lays-off-h... Note that there has been a significant layoff days ago in the assistant team to "improve Google Assistant as it explores integrating newer artificial intelligence technology into its products". Probably they're trying to replace the backend for the assistant with some LMM-based models and see those functionalities are the blockers? Of course, this could…

> who knows what those execs have in their mind.

If I understand Google culture correctly, "promo" is the answer.

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#159

Post by gerash »

fsmv wrote: post #133
bilalq wrote: post #87

For all the hype "AI" gets these days, it's amazing how much things have regressed. My Android phone used to remember where I parked and show it on my Google Now feed and a push notification as I headed out, all without ever asking it to do anything. The travel.google.com site used to show my itineraries without ever adding them there. Hotels, flights, car rentals, and more would be aggregated. Doesn't do that anymor…

The new DMA law prevents combining data across products

Really? If so, then Google should only apply it to European users and not the entire world

Re: Changes we're making to Google Assistant

#160

Post by geoelectric »

afavour wrote: post #30

To me this highlights the core failure with all these voice-driven UIs: you have absolutely no idea what is possible and what isn't. Discoverability is zero, which makes big changes like this even more disruptive. I've already decided that I'm done with Google's smart assistant stuff in any case. I have a Google Home with a screen in my kitchen and the most-used feature (aside from just existing as a photo frame) was…

Echo still syncs with AnyList fwiw.

I have an Alexa list called “Grocery” that does a 2-way sync, and use it to accelerate my online Safeway orders via AnyList.

You can sync to the default Amazon Shopping list too, but I find it works better if you have a secondary one specifically for sync.

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