Search, the cornerstone that Google is built on is getting ready to receive an overhaul pretty soon. Coming “over the next months” are semantic search results that can tell what you are looking for based on how and where you type it. The difference between searching for “an apple” or the the company Apple will be more apparent to the search engine and should make things much easier to find.

Aside from using the search functions on our browsers, where can we expect to see this? Google Assistant will most certainly make use of this feature whenever it rolls out. It seems inevitable that the two become closely related because the applications primary function will be to find things for you. One of the biggest complaints of Siri is that she is a “dumb search engine” that doesn’t always recognize what the user is looking for. Could this give Google the leg up in the voice actions department?

Via: PhoneArena

Once running under the codename “Majel,” Google has reportedly settled on an official name for their Siri-like competitor. That name is Assistant. Most of the dirty details surrounding this service are a mystery, however, TechCrunch believes it to be more of a “Do Engine” that would help you achieve real-life goals rather than something that will simply return search results.

According to their sources, the Android team has taken this project on with search engineer Amit Singhal to attempt to gather the world’s knowledge into a format that a computer can understand. They also want to make the service adhere to your personal life more, potentially using services like Google+ and +1 to help understand how people interact socially.

Unlike Siri though, Google will provide developers with the opportunity to tie in their products to Assistant, a move that could make the service unlike any other. Siri will always be bound to Apple’s vision, while Assistant could grow thanks to outside influences and innovators.

Google big wigs are look at a Q4 2012 unveiling of the product. While that seems so far off in the distance, remember that Google I/O with an additional 3rd day is happening in June. If Assistant is indeed launching this year, you have to imagine that we will see some sort of preview during that week. Also, Q4 is when we will likely see Jelly Bean or Android 5.0.

Via:  TechCrunch

Someone in the Android community was bored over the last few days and decided to open up one of the .xml files for the Face Unlock feature in Ice Cream Sandwich. They noticed a list of items that for some reason, made them jump to the conclusion that these are a part of Google’s rumored voice recognition/artificial intelligence service codenamed “Majel.” As you can see from the list, they appear to be somewhat witty responses to actions. The only thing is, these are clearly alternate responses that appear on the screen when the Face Unlock doesn’t recognize you.

The first response listed is “Sorry, don’t recognize you.” If anyone has used Face Unlock at all, you will know that this is the canned response that appears every time. The others, are options that can probably be enabled, but for whatever reason, have not been. It’s not Majel. These aren’t voice-related or intelligent responses. They are pre-set lines that are displayed on the screen when the unlock feature does not recognize you. That’s it.

Moving on…

According to our pals over at Android and Me, Google has spent much of the year putting in work on a newly revamped Voice Actions software, which they have codenamed Majel. You could consider this their answer to Apple’s Siri and will go far beyond what the current crop of Android Voice Actions can accomplish. The limits of specific commands (navigate to, listen to, etc.) will soon be gone and the times of speaking in natural language may be upon us.

Confused by the codename? The word Majel comes from the name of the woman who acted as the voice of the Federation Computer on Star Trek for years. And it just so happens that Matias Duarte (the ICS architect) mentioned Star Trek back in October around the time that Android 4.0 was unveiled. He was quoted as saying that their approach to voice actions “is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just Computer.” Fitting.

It’s anyone’s guess as to when we might see this new voice activated software, but there is a chance it could be out within the next couple of months. If Google wants to step into the voice actions game in a real way, it would be in their best interest to not wait around while Apple works to take Siri out of beta.

Is everyone ready to start talking to your phone like it’s your best friend?

Via:  Android and Me