Google now updated with new features

[Dulanic]

Google decided to update Google now today. Have to say the Gmail integration is nice It picked up 2 amazon packages for me.

 

[TuxDave]

Nice, what was the phrase you used to get your shipping results?

"Where's mah stuff?"

 

[cheezy321]

I hope apple follows suit with something like this. Google now seems pretty cool.

 

[Dulanic]

Nice, what was the phrase you used to get your shipping results?

"Where's mah stuff?"

Nothing it's cards.

 

[Dulanic]

I hope apple follows suit with something like this. Google now seems pretty cool.

And I hope Google applied for patents....

 

[TuxDave]

Nothing it's cards.

Ah, that's interesting stuff. I don't think I've seen cards before. My friends don't play with Google Now! enough to tell me about these things.

 

[Dulanic]

Ah, that's interesting stuff. I don't think I've seen cards before. My friends don't play with Google Now! enough to tell me about these things.

I'd have to say until more recently the cards have been... meh. They were a nice start but it didn't used to kind of go looking for info you might want unless you kind of told it to. I like this gmail integration since I use gmail for everything.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Updated google search and it does it's thing. Neat. If one gives the Now the data and permission it seeks, I think this can become a very cool tool down the road. At this point, I think it's just neat as opposed to cool.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I think cards are cool but I think Google Now drains a LOT of battery life. It causes wakelocks and stuff. It's cool to show off, but sometimes a bit too much. I'm glad it's toned down about showing me traffic ever 20 minutes though.

 

[techpun]

seems like a fad.. just something to compete with siri..both these things are kinda silly.

 

[ponyo]

I think cards are cool but I think Google Now drains a LOT of battery life. It causes wakelocks and stuff. It's cool to show off, but sometimes a bit too much. I'm glad it's toned down about showing me traffic ever 20 minutes though.

The battery life drain from Google Now was fixed on 4.1.2 for the Galaxy Nexus.

 

[sygyzy]

seems like a fad.. just something to compete with siri..both these things are kinda silly.

Google Now's strength is the cards, not the voice search.

 

[cheezy321]

And I hope Google applied for patents....

Prior Art! Prior Art!

 

[TuxDave]

I hate to bring up 2 day old threads but I also hate to create a new thread for small questions. This is the closest I could get.

So Google voice search was released to the iPhone a couple days ago and as far as I can tell it looks and sounds like the same voice capabilities as the ones in Google Now (minus cards of course). I'm not sure if it's THE SAME but I have no idea how to check.

Pros:
It's REALLY fast
Voice reproduction is miles better on the ear and she speaks faster

Con:
It's actually a lot less capable/flexible than Siri. (see below, don't get angry)

If someone could pass these questions to Google Now, at least I can tell if I'm not getting the "real deal".

Movies:
"What are the nearest movie theaters?" The voice prompt returns "These are the movies playing in <location>" and below that you get what you want. Oddly "what are the nearest gas stations" gives you a listing on top.

Sports:
"When does college basketball season start?" It returns a Google search (no voice prompt) and the first result is useless.

Business:
"How much is Intel stock right now?" (and gives it in a special format) works but "What is Intel stock right now" doesn't.

More Sports:
"Who won the world series" gives the last three game summary but doesn't tell me who won the series and doesn't give you any voice response besides "showing information for the MLB world series"

So yeah, no flame war, just wanted someone to tell me if I'm playing with the same deal or just some nerfed version of it.

 

[SunnyD]

Prior Art! Prior Art!

Prior art still ties up years of misguided litigation, patent reviews by myopic reviewers and millions of dollars in attorney fees.

 

[ponyo]

I hate to bring up 2 day old threads but I also hate to create a new thread for small questions. This is the closest I could get.

So Google voice search was released to the iPhone a couple days ago and as far as I can tell it looks and sounds like the same voice capabilities as the ones in Google Now (minus cards of course). I'm not sure if it's THE SAME but I have no idea how to check.

Pros:
It's REALLY fast
Voice reproduction is miles better on the ear and she speaks faster

Con:
It's actually a lot less capable/flexible than Siri. (see below, don't get angry)

If someone could pass these questions to Google Now, at least I can tell if I'm not getting the "real deal".

Movies:
"What are the nearest movie theaters?" The voice prompt returns "These are the movies playing in " and below that you get what you want. Oddly "what are the nearest gas stations" gives you a listing on top.

Sports:
"When does college basketball season start?" It returns a Google search (no voice prompt) and the first result is useless.

Business:
"How much is Intel stock right now?" (and gives it in a special format) works but "What is Intel stock right now" doesn't.

More Sports:
"Who won the world series" gives the last three game summary but doesn't tell me who won the series and doesn't give you any voice response besides "showing information for the MLB world series"

So yeah, no flame war, just wanted someone to tell me if I'm playing with the same deal or just some nerfed version of it.

I tested your question on my Galaxy Nexus and found some different and some the same. Movies theater question it got right and I got a card with all the closest movie theaters. Same with the Intel stock question. The stock Intel question I got the voice along with the card. This was using your second Intel stock question you said didn't work.

I got the Google search result for the college basketball and the World Series question.

Hope this helps.

 

[Red Storm]

I enjoy using Google Now. I used to have to check weather and traffic before/after work, Google Now has taken care of that. The Gmail integration looks very cool, can't wait to try that out. Transit info automatically popping up is nice as well, as with the sports scores.

 

[ponyo]

I'm really liking the new stock and package tracking cards. I was surprised to see it when I pulled up Google Now. It showed my Amazon package was shipped and I was able to click and see my package was out for delivery. Very neat.

 

[ponyo]

I enjoy using Google Now. I used to have to check weather and traffic before/after work, Google Now has taken care of that. The Gmail integration looks very cool, can't wait to try that out. Transit info automatically popping up is nice as well, as with the sports scores.

On mine it's showing traffic time home as 20 minutes, Stocks today with list of stock quotes, Package shipped status with the description of the item and who it was from, weather and forecast of my current location along with another card of my home weather and forecast.

I'm pretty impressed.

 

[mikeymikec]

nvm

 

[TuxDave]

I tested your question on my Galaxy Nexus and found some different and some the same. Movies theater question it got right and I got a card with all the closest movie theaters. Same with the Intel stock question. The stock Intel question I got the voice along with the card. This was using your second Intel stock question you said didn't work.

I got the Google search result for the college basketball and the World Series question.

Hope this helps.

I very much appreciate it! Not sure why my 2nd stock phrasing didn't work but I guess that's just a part of the "black magic". I guess it's close to what Google Now provides. Too bad I can't see all the cards that you do. Thanks again.

 

[vshah]

seems like a fad.. just something to compete with siri..both these things are kinda silly.

i had a dentist appointment a few weeks ago. google now alerted me to leave 15 mins earlier than i would have otherwise because of traffic on the route. i got there with 5 mins to spare. 100% useful and awesome.

 

[WelshBloke]

I hate to bring up 2 day old threads but I also hate to create a new thread for small questions. This is the closest I could get.

So Google voice search was released to the iPhone a couple days ago and as far as I can tell it looks and sounds like the same voice capabilities as the ones in Google Now (minus cards of course). I'm not sure if it's THE SAME but I have no idea how to check.

Pros:
It's REALLY fast
Voice reproduction is miles better on the ear and she speaks faster

Con:
It's actually a lot less capable/flexible than Siri. (see below, don't get angry)

If someone could pass these questions to Google Now, at least I can tell if I'm not getting the "real deal".

Movies:
"What are the nearest movie theaters?" The voice prompt returns "These are the movies playing in <location>" and below that you get what you want. Oddly "what are the nearest gas stations" gives you a listing on top.

Sports:
"When does college basketball season start?" It returns a Google search (no voice prompt) and the first result is useless.

Business:
"How much is Intel stock right now?" (and gives it in a special format) works but "What is Intel stock right now" doesn't.

More Sports:
"Who won the world series" gives the last three game summary but doesn't tell me who won the series and doesn't give you any voice response besides "showing information for the MLB world series"

So yeah, no flame war, just wanted someone to tell me if I'm playing with the same deal or just some nerfed version of it.

It's probably never going to be as functional on iOS as it won't have such a deep access to the OS as it does on Android.

Still it brings up an interesting point about what makes a Google phone. If iOS gets Gsearch, Gmaps and Gmail then it's getting there.

 

[Red Storm]

It's probably never going to be as functional on iOS as it won't have such a deep access to the OS as it does on Android.

Still it brings up an interesting point about what makes a Google phone. If iOS gets Gsearch, Gmaps and Gmail then it's getting there.

Widgets, USB storage, changing default applications, Google Now, not relying on iTunes...

Looong way to go (and it'll never get there).

 

[TuxDave]

It's probably never going to be as functional on iOS as it won't have such a deep access to the OS as it does on Android.

Still it brings up an interesting point about what makes a Google phone. If iOS gets Gsearch, Gmaps and Gmail then it's getting there.

As you can tell from the queries above, it's not just about OS integration. Google voice search is still behind on machine learning since it doesn't understand the questions regarding "World Series" or "College basketball season" on either platforms.

Better integration will probably help it deal with the "where" type questions and so I didn't try to push that too much. But I'm seeing gaps in parsing the meaning behind what I'm asking (where's Watson when you nee dhim). It's something that both will get better, for example the original Siri didn't understand sports either. I was expecting more out of Google voice search since people made it sound like it was miles above Siri. Speed? A big yes! Parsing? It's actually worse (from my 2 minute experiment into sports queries).