"The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#2I'll play devil's advocate here. Are we sure Microsoft is not doing the same data mining on Bing411 as Google did on Goog411, and haven't dumped it because it is either a valuable service in their eyes or they are not done gleaning what google gleaned from their head start?
I somehow doubt this is the case but I'm not so sure we can assume that it is not.
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#3Somehow, it doesn't seem like Google's plan was much of a secret, even back in 2007: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/goog-411-isnt-what-you-thin...
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#4While I cannot speculate on Microsoft purpose of a 411 service, I think it is pretty obvious why google dumped theirs - they now have access to an enormous source of human speech through google voice.
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#5Somehow, it doesn't seem like Google's plan was much of a secret, even back in 2007: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/goog-411-isnt-what-you-thin...
Yep, not saying it was a secret... Tim O'Reilly had it nailed back then... but the story I have to remind myself of is that too many times we go off face value rather than digging in and listening to people like Tim... This happens all over the place and it was worth capturing the story that replays in my head each time I see a new revision of it.
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#6Interesting read. But the best part for me was learning about a new free 411 service. At least once a week, I start to call Goog411 before sadly remembering the service was discontinued.
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#7While I cannot speculate on Microsoft purpose of a 411 service, I think it is pretty obvious why google dumped theirs - they now have access to an enormous source of human speech through google voice.
Yeah. The voicemail transcription feature truly is like an open invitation to provide them with real-world data across a wide range of accents, phones, and people.
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#8Somehow, it doesn't seem like Google's plan was much of a secret, even back in 2007: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/goog-411-isnt-what-you-thin...
Yep, not saying it was a secret... Tim O'Reilly had it nailed back then... but the story I have to remind myself of is that too many times we go off face value rather than digging in and listening to people like Tim... This happens all over the place and it was worth capturing the story that replays in my head each time I see a new revision of it.
What did Tim say back then?
In any case, it was really well known what Google's goals were. In fact it was a pretty standard feedback technique used by all automated phone voice reoognition systems.
For Bing though this is also a branding opportunity. Google has relatively little to gain in branding with their 411 service, but for Bing it still has great upside potential.
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#9Interesting read. But the best part for me was learning about a new free 411 service. At least once a week, I start to call Goog411 before sadly remembering the service was discontinued.
And Bing's is massively less polished of an experience than Google's was :/ I still use it, but only as a last resort.
Re: "The 411 Parable": Goog411 vs Bing411 - Make sure you are playing the same game.
#10Somehow, it doesn't seem like Google's plan was much of a secret, even back in 2007: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/goog-411-isnt-what-you-thin...
Yep, not saying it was a secret... Tim O'Reilly had it nailed back then... but the story I have to remind myself of is that too many times we go off face value rather than digging in and listening to people like Tim... This happens all over the place and it was worth capturing the story that replays in my head each time I see a new revision of it.
well, Marissa Mayer of Google explicitly stated in a public announcement in October 2007 that it was going to be used for speech recognition algorithms. And many, many news blogs published that.
http://www.infoworld.com/t/data-management/google-wants-your...
Your article makes it seem like the fact that Google was using 411 for voice analysis was somewhat 'unknown' until 2009, whereas I would say that the knowledge was actually quite mainstream and, frankly, hard to ignore.
I would argue that assuming that the Bing team completely failed to see all the news articles and press releases (from Google, no less) about this for 2 years, is perhaps a little presumptuous? Maybe, as another poster mentioned, they are still getting value out of the 411 service?
I do agree with your point, and there are many many times I've seen companies do this, but Bing 411 vs Google 411 might not be the right example since Google's intentions were very clear, right from the start.
Disclaimer: I work on MS Office (completely unrelated to Bing & the 411 service, but still not what you would call an unbiased source)