

Sorry, Siri: How Google Is Planning to Be Your New Personal Assistant - dctoedt
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/sorry-siri-how-google-is-planning-to-be-your-new-personal-assistant/275391/

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untog
I think we're all going to look back at the launch buzz over Siri and wonder
what we were thinking (if we don't already). Obviously there is plenty of time
for Apple to improve it, but Google Now really beats Siri on every meaningful
level. Now that it corrals so much predictive data, having to speak to Siri to
get it to do something seems like stone-age era stuff.

Have Apple added much to Siri since it launched? Certainly, I don't remember
any big banner features.

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k-mcgrady
I think Siri was good when it launched and people were right to be excited
about it but Apple have done very little with it over the last 18 months. It's
still technically a beta too. Another problem is a lot of the features are
limited to the US or a few other countries. Siri had the potential to be
Google Now but Apple never bothered.

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ChuckMcM
This is the thing I never understood. Siri _owned_ the experience, and still
the biggest data partner was Google which got to reap 18 months of 'click
data' on Siri queries for "free."

The fact that Apple doesn't have a web search engine boggles my mind, they
only need look at how Google and Microsoft exploit the Web corpus to create
really compelling user experiences to know that its rapidly going to become
the differentiating factor between integrated product offerings.

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ultimoo
The most important differentiator between Google Now and Siri is that one is
visual and text based whereas the other is only voice activated.

I do not speak English in an American, British or an Australian accent and I
disabled Siri on my iPhone in less than a week after I bought it.

This alone expands Google Now's market by a significant number.

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what_ever
Google search for Andoird/iOS or in a browser also has voice input option and
I must say it's pretty good at understanding your accent. You should try it!

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mwfunk
Google Now and Siri are fundamentally different types of applications, one is
not a substitute for the other (at least currently). I see stories like this
all the time setting them up against each other, and they always read like
Apple vs. Google clickbait rather than anyone actually comparing the use cases
or feature sets.

It reminds me of this really lame ongoing narrative that the tech press had 10
years ago, about Bluetooth vs. WiFi and which technology was going to, uh,
"win". Aside from being based on pushing bits through RF, they were completely
disjoint technologies that solved different problems, but a bunch of tech
pundits kept writing articles about how there was some battle for the future
of wireless communications and one of them was going to destroy the other.

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ScottWhigham
I wonder if the author actually tried Google Now before writing the story, or
whether this was solely based on press releases, videos, and other comments
elsewhere? Maybe I missed it but I don't really see it here where the author
says, "I tried it and I had this or that opinion".

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taylodl
Running Google Now on my iPhone runs counter to my strategy of getting Google
further out of my life. I have no interest in getting further enmeshed into
their services.

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SpikeDad
Obviously no one has tried the Google app (iOS at least). It is the most
disorganized and slapped together application in the history of iOS.

I'm still wondering how the hell anyone could seriously consider releasing
this abomination.

Until Google decides to join the iOS infrastructure (like reading from your
Contacts - radical I know) none of it's apps will provide even the slightest
interesting interactions.

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msoad
find two iPhones

start voice listening on both (one Siri, one Google app) at the same time

start talking

see the difference

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onedognight
How about letting us know the results of said experiment or recording a video?
Your comment, as it stands, is waste for those of us who do not already know
the result.

EDIT: Thanks for the video. Summary, Google's voice search is the same speed
or faster than Siri for all queries tried with the results being nearly
identical in all cases.

EDIT 2: Here is an updated video[1] from the same person six months after
yours, but still six months ago, wherein the difference is less clear if not
in Siri's favor.

[1] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3T6rbGwrF8>

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msoad
Here is a video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDsOtdRtG0Q>

