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Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

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Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#51
post #39

While this is incredibly smart and a very impressive application of machine learning, does anyone actually want this? I'm quite capable of looking at traffic reports or bus times myself when I need to. I actually think I'd find this pretty annoying, if my phone told me sports score before I'd had a chance to watch the game, or if it started second guessing me at every turn. This has the feel of valet parking, while i…

Earlier browsers had one address box, and one search box.

Chrome moved both together - and many people liked it.

I'm sure you like Google Instant and Google Suggest - with the results/search terms showing up even as you type - allowing you to refine your query on the fly even before you complete it!

Google Now is one big leap in the same direction.

I search for a lot of things, and I would like instant access to a lot of things that I've searched for before.

If my phone can figure out what I need access to 'Now' because I've searched for it before or it knows my routing - I say bring it on - make my life easier - and give me more time to do my stuff instead of handling logistics and trivia.

Look at the examples - giving you transit timings when you enter a bus-stop, or giving you traffic conditions to your office or next appointment, or driving directions to the place you searched for. Why not using the super computer in your pocket for that instead of focusing your mind on it and distracting you from your life?

And either you're watching the game NOW, and therefore the score is not relevant to you, or you're not able to watch the game, so the scores are useful. Presumably, the number of people who time-shift a live game is not that high. Those folks can simply delete the card the first time and never see it again.

Google Now is adding a rich information layer to your life via your phone. You can ignore it or you can use it.

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#52
post #40

Google Now is awesome. Search for a place on Google - card shows up with driving directions on phone. Morning and evening, shows up driving time/directions for work/home.

Why are you people thinking this is better than Microsoft Words annoying Clippy? "It seems like you are writing a letter..."

I already know how to get to work every day.

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#53
post #44

So I can steal someone's phone, and just have it remind me of all that user's private info by walking around? Nifty. Edit: I know the above is glib, and I'm not trying to rain on the parade of unbelievable achievements in data-wrangling that are going on here (I'd love to hear how it's done computationally), but I don't like knowing that all the privacy controls something like this deserves will be rolled out hastily…

That isn't a problem with Google Now, that's a problem with smartphones generally. Even without Google Now, you can log onto someone's Facebook account, read their emails, read their texts, view their calendar, etc.

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#54
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you have location history enabled, it seems to pretty much assume that if you go the same place during the day often enough, it calls it work, and if you spend enough nights at a place, it calls it home. Google had picked a location for me and called it "work" which was not the exact street address but close enough. I know I didn't ever key in an address and explicitly tell them it was where I work, or else t…

> ... if you spend enough nights at a place, it calls it home Finally! We can replace the old cliche where a girl has basically moved in with a guy once she has a toothbrush at his place, by a new one, where she has moved in once her phone calls his place home.

Imagine the heart-breaking scenes when you have to explain to your phone that this is no longer home, but both of you still love it...

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#55
post #34
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can have some amusing results when the input isn't as Google expects. For example, in my office the conference rooms are named after streets, some of which are also cities. So when I have a 2pm meeting in Folsom, I get a notification a couple of hours before telling me I should leave soon so I can make it to Folsom, CA in time.

That's cute. Is there a way to tell Google that you mean a different "Folsom"? Google's Knowledge Graph does have a concept of name ambiguity (as does Wikipedia; it has disambiguation pages). For example, if I do a Google search for "Taj Mahal", the right sidebar shows details about the landmark in India, but below that it also offers to give me more information about the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, or Taj Mahal t…

If you lived in Great Britain and typed in "Taj Mahal", it would find 100 restaurants within one mile.

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#56
post #48
post #22

Interesting. I'm thinking that Android vs Apple may be decided on the simple fact that sufficiently-better AI trumps any-amount-better UI. Lawsuits and supposed openness be damned.

Which is why it seems to me that introducing Siri was a dumb move for Apple: UI is one of Apple's core competencies, but machine intelligence is pretty much the one thing Google is best at.

But it was smart of Apple to get their product to market first. Waiting for it to be "finished", then being stuck behind Google in ML technology indefinitely, would have been dumb.

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#57
post #22

Interesting. I'm thinking that Android vs Apple may be decided on the simple fact that sufficiently-better AI trumps any-amount-better UI. Lawsuits and supposed openness be damned.

I think the UI gap between Apple and Google is either closing rapidly or has already closed. Android looks slicker and more useful every day while iOS is slowly grinding on with the same old app icons and home button.

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#58
With a little imagination, it's not hard to see why some are nervous about a search engine that stores every interaction in an attempt to profile its users and guess their intentions. Don your finest tin foil hat as we channel surf some internet TV stations from the future:

LIGHTS DIM; THE GLOW OF A COMPUTER SCREEN FILLS THE ROOM

"In what is thought to be a world-first, a man's life was saved late Friday following automated intervention by a search engine.

"Close friends of Mr Exampleson, who BBC News can now reveal were the only members of his "Best Friends" circle on Boogle Plus, said they were able to get to the Beachy Head cliffs in Southern England five minutes before his arrival thanks only to an email from a 'Concerned Partner'.

"The email said that their friend was displaying worrying behaviour, that he had personally disclosed his intention to take his own life, that he had planned a route to Beachy Head with an estimated arrival time of 19:27, and that he was currently on the A267 heading South at a speed of 57MPH.

"A spokesperson from Boogle Ireland this morning said that they have long been publishing helpline numbers on their website when a user enters certain search terms, and that this was simply an extension of that service.

"Privacy advocate Mr Foilhatison joins us now to discuss what this means for..."

SWITCH CHANNEL

"...surrounded the building and ordered the suspect to come out with his hands up. When questioned, it emerged that the man was famous writer Real Steveyson, who is staying in the area to write his hotly anticipated thriller, Cryptonomnomnom. Mr Steveyson has since been released with a public apology. Police are now said to be following a variety of other leads they hope will 'prove to be less of a hopeless time suck'.

"Asked why he felt detectives had singled him out and surrounded him in his remote location, Mr Steveyson said that he had been searching Boogle over a period of two months for various methods to reduce DNA evidence at crime scenes for his upcoming book. He had also been Boogling for local peat bogs, completely unaware of the recent bodies that police have pulled from them. Mr Steveyson suspects that Boogle may now be sharing live search information with local law enforcement agencies in a bid to both pre-empt crime and increase conviction rates. The idea sounds so far-fetched that he plans to make it the subject of his next novel, which he hopes to publish for the first time via telepathic transfer using the new...

SWITCH CHANNEL

"We're here in the diamond district where Miss Caratson is closing her shop for the last time. Tell us, Miss Caratson, is it the same story for you as it has been for the others?"

"Sure is! I haven't sold a single engagement ring since Boogle Hive got popular."

"Can you explain why?"

"Boogle talks my customers out of the purchase! Somehow it detects that they're in a jewellers. And that's when it gets really weird. It always starts the same way: they get that dreaded audio alert. That's when I know I've lost the sale.

"One time, it told a young man that, based on a language analysis of all correspondence with his partner, there was a 76% chance that his fiancé-to-be was only interested in him for his large Boogle Wallet balance, so he might want to hold off on his big plans.

"Another time, Boogle tells my customer that, based on something called their "Boogle Lifestyle Score", they probably weren't the marrying kind. Then it reels off a list of 12 ways they'd have much more fun with the same amount of money, and it lets them know that six of the 12 things are within a five-minute walk.

"And don't get me started on the glasses! Guys using those Boogle Glasses always get told that Boogle has found the same ring they're looking at 500 bucks cheaper three shops down. It's a race to the bottom. I just can't win.

"Some of us tried to circumvent it by installing Faraday shielding and blocking the damn system altogether, but Boogle just warns people to avoid us before they even get in the door. It's over. I'm done!"

"What will you do now, Miss Caratson?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to do what everyone else is doing. I'm going to start a..."

SCREEN DIMS, AMBIENT LIGHTS FLICKER ON

Yes, some of this may be a little far-fetched, but the idea of a computer network attempting to infer intentions based on a lifetime of intimate accumulated knowledge is troubling for many. Even if such a system has the potential to be incredibly useful, I suspect that the amount of blind trust it demands would make it a challenge to adopt for more than a few of us.

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#59
post #15
post #14

I have been using Google Now for a few months now and it has been amazing. Example 1: One night I was going to a Roots concert and I went through the venue's website on my Google Chrome on my laptop. Then, right around concert time, Google Now alerted me to what subway I should take to get there. Example 2: I searched for the Phillies score once on my tablet, and now my phone tells me about the score of each game. Ag…

Really cool, but am I the only one who finds this creepy as hell?

What, have you got something to hide? :-)

It is creepy as hell, indeed.

Re: Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead

#60
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can explicitly tell it where you work FYI: https://latitude.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/dashboard

Thank you! This needs to be much more obvious.

You can also set it from "My Places" in Google Maps.
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