Comments on: Google Search Receives Update: New Google Now Cards and Voice Actions Included

By: Russell Tanner

Russell Tanner — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 22:16:00 +0000

Definitely. Could be a little of both too.

By: kniceguy

kniceguy — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Just saw this, but I did want to say, it seemed to me almost like a natural upgrade of voice search. For sure they really pushed it when Siri was a big thing but the ease and execution made me think it had already been in the works.

To me it seems like it would have happened with or without siri. Well maybe. I just wanted to pose that I think it is a real possibility.

By: Russell Tanner

Russell Tanner — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:35:00 +0000

Exactly

By: Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:53:00 +0000

Definitely true. Everyone has been scrambling to respond to Apple’s Siri.

The fact is, Google had Voice Actions back in 2010 and they still work well on Android 2.x devices. My wife uses them on her OG EVO 4G running Android 2.3. Google Now/Search just makes them that much easier to use because you don’t really have to remember how to exactly phrase things. It just figures it out with its natural language processing, plus it keeps adding more and more of them, whereas the old Voice Actions never got that many additional commands.

By: zurginator

zurginator — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:47:00 +0000

Is it just me, or did the latest update remove the “Google” wake command?

By: michael arazan

michael arazan — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 09:32:00 +0000

Now if they’d only add NCAA sports to the cards

By: Russell Tanner

Russell Tanner — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 07:33:00 +0000

Oh yeah totally. Now is absolutely a better tool than Siri (from what I’ve seen of Siri anyway), I’m just saying that Now was released somewhat as a response. Like, the hype around Siri made Google step up their game by making the functional Voice Search app into something much deeper and more comprehensive. It then became not only a search app, but also a place to constantly update the user with relevant information, and that’s much more than what Siri does.

By: Dan Flores

Dan Flores — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 05:51:00 +0000

This is funny, but it also makes me sad.

By: Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:42:00 +0000

Siri has its place, but I just think Google Now and Search are more useful. I also like the fact that we’re seeing continual updates whereas Siri’s update track is much slower.

I love the voice actions with Google Now/Search. It’s like the older (Android 1.6 – 2.3) version on steroids, with natural language processing. Plus, like I said above, they keep adding features.

By: Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:30:00 +0000

Good points. Thankfully, Google has made it pretty painless for Google Now to just be insightful and smart about what you need without much of your user intervention and that should only improve as we move forward.

Google Now has been one of the more intriguing things that I’ve really been fixated on with Android lately. I look forward to a bright future with it.

By: Max M.

Max M. — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:29:00 +0000

http://www.droid-life.com/2012/11/27/holy-sht-google-sucks-at-selling-devices-through-google-play/#disqus_thread

By: Royal2000H

Royal2000H — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:15:00 +0000

Include me?

By: kniceguy

kniceguy — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:07:00 +0000

You’re right. However I think of it not as an assistant. I think it is a tool, which is better really because it is as useful as the person who wields it. In that sense it is not limited to its own capabilities but rather only by how much you are willing to integrate it into your services. That is the vision at least (my opinion of course).

By: Russell Tanner

Russell Tanner — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 23:53:00 +0000

Yeah, even though Google chose a different (and better, I think) implementation of the “digital assistant” idea, it really did come as an answer to Siri. Google just chose to make it a beefed up version and better interface for the voice search they already had instead of giving it a persona.

By: Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 23:34:00 +0000

Totally agree. If you think about it, though, it IS a personal assistant, just not a snarky one like Siri.

I mean, it anticipates stuff for you, and gives you cards based on what it thinks you’ll need. That’s pretty assisting, IMO. It’s really great. It’s not just reactive, it’s proactive.