
Google will eventually open the Google Now API to app developers - bootload
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/open-google-now-make-android-super-smart/
======
josteink
If that is true and is adopted by app-developers in a non-spammy and non-
annoying way I might actually start using it.

So far Google Now has only been Google using up my battery to tell me that my
way home, will still take me 20 minutes by car, despite me having exclusively
used the subway since before I signed up for Google apps. The one thing it
does, it does _wrong_. That's a 100% failure-rate.

I don't know how much it has cost Google, but so far I would definitely rate
it not worth it.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Blame your city, not Google.

AFAIK in my city, public transport authorities signed some kind of exclusivity
deal with a route-planning startup, and they don't give bus/tram timetables to
Google. Maybe where you live there is a similar deal?

The startup itself is not that bad, but having this data available in Google
Maps and Google now would be _strictly better_. I've experienced this in
Hanover once and I know how cool it is.

~~~
LunaSea
A city shouldn't have to deal with Google. Google is a company and should
provide a reasonable service or no service at all.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Google needs timetable data, and since they're a company, they can't just go
and scrap the timetables from the official website and call it a day. They
have to arrange for whoever runs the public transport system to provide this
data, and sometimes the city refuses.

~~~
LunaSea
For Google Maps, they used satellite imaging and cars with cameras. They
didn't ask the government to give them the information / data besides the
necessary permits.

A company can't just expect that the data holders will blindly comply with
them because the result would be an improvement over the current solution.

~~~
maxerickson
Google Maps makes huge use of government data (particularly in the US where
the government makes detailed imagery available under a free license).

I'm also confused what your point is. TeMPOraL expressed an opinion _but
having this data available in Google Maps and Google now would be strictly
better._

That isn't a forceful argument that cities must comply with the demands of
Google, but you seem to be answering it as if it were.

Using your words, it's a lamentation that Google provides _no service at all_.

~~~
LunaSea
I was reacting to TeMPOraL in that way because it felt like there was some
kind of entitlement for the data.

Public entities ow the data to nobody and especially not to companies.

For sure, it would be great if city administrations and public entities did
have some kind of API but the overhead would be just too big to justify the
cost.

Having commercial partners for those APIs would be one way to fund it but I
don't think that it would be a sustainable model world-wide.

~~~
maxerickson
I disagree, public entities owe the data to their users.

(especially if we are talking about entities that receive government funding
or offer a public service under some limited license)

I think my attitude is widespread:

[https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/](https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/)

[https://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed/wiki/PublicF...](https://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed/wiki/PublicFeeds)

That's a Google effort, but it is pragmatic, it opens the data for more than
just Google.

~~~
LunaSea
I agree with the idea that the data should be open to the public. Research
funded by public grants should be in the same category as well.

But as a developer I know how quickly the technologies and developer needs
change. There are often threads on the front page of HN and /r/programming
about the technology turnover being too quick. From this practical point of
view I find it difficult to see how an public entity could justify funding for
stuff like this.

Also using companies like Google as an example for data-openness is not the
best argument. API bait-and-switches are just too common these days.

~~~
maxerickson
I didn't use _Google_ as an example, I used that particular effort as an
example. It involves dozens of transit providers opening their data, with no
intermediate reliance on Google.

As far as the spending, the public entity already has to have some sort of
record of their scheduling. The justification for sharing it is simply that
making things easier to use increases use of them. Perhaps that isn't the
case, but it shouldn't take months of time to set up a system to dump an
existing database, so for systems with thousands of users it should not be a
significant expense.

------
luma
> Google has 40 apps in a pilot program that’s produced integrations like
> location-based rewards and ticket codes from Walgreens and Fandango, flight
> and lodging deals based on recent Kayak and Airbnb activity, and more.

What worries me is that each example they offer is some way to advertise goods
and services. I don't need yet another avenue for this kind of crap to be
pushed out to me.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Yup. This concept has so much potential, and yet half of the companies
included are, well... crap. Useless.

Give us the API, Google. I'll happily write a Hacker News integration (as
someone will most likely beat me to Github one).

------
peterclary
"About to"? I read a lot of hopes and aspirations, but nothing as imminent as
"about to".

Emphasis mine:

"Aparna Chennapragada...announced at SXSW that the service EVENTUALLY will
open its API to all app developers."

"A Google spokesperson told WIRED there IS NO TIMETABLE for opening the API to
all developers, but that the company “plans to add more cards and open the API
to developers over time.”"

~~~
blfr
According to the OP, there are already 40 apps in the pilot program.
Presumably, Google will open the platform to close partners first, and
independent developers later.

~~~
weego
Yes, development for apps for content partners was started in early November
and were being tested in small batches in mid December.

------
buro9
Are business customers able to turn on Google Now for their domain hosted
email yet?

I remain without a Gmail account, all of my email passes through several
Google Apps accounts. Google Now has been a tease for years... it appears to
offer the features I desire, but none of them are available to me.

Email scanning for flight information, appointments, etc... just doesn't
happen.

I keep Google Now enabled, but pretty much all it can tell me is where I am,
and what the weather is like. But this isn't that useful. I want the rest.

------
nnain
In some ways I like Google Now. It can organize things on my phone utilizing
Google's vast knowledge about my activities online.

But the same thing bothers me deeply. Our lives have become subjects to these
machine learning algorithms. They feed us meaningless click-baity titles,
advertisements and notifications that aren't all that important. That's how
their huge business operations roll after all. We've become a generation that
subconsciously write to feed the machines, not humans; and there's no easy way
out in sight.

~~~
pmontra
Exactly. Dear Google, not that I don't appreciate your efforts but please open
source the server side application, let me install in on my VPS and point my
phone to it. I'll be happy to start using Google Now then. But don't forget to
open source the app too, to be sure that nothing funny is going on inside it.

------
reitanqild
Everyone else (it seems) complains about how google discontinued Reader.

My biggest loss was google desktop. One of a few brilliant things it did was
to pick news to me based on what I had already read (I guess it autodetected
RSS feeds in pages I read and used them as input.)

Hopefully this could replace this particular feature.

------
mark_l_watson
As much as I appreciate a lot of Google services, including Google Now when I
lived for a while in Mountain View and it worked fairly well, my big issue is
how I value my time.

I am fighting back a little on information + marketing material being pushed
at me. I do some simple things that help: use GMail as a low priority email
catch-all that I check just a few times a day; use a personal domain email
address for friends and family that I check very frequently; I keep my
cellphone turned off while with friends, hiking, coding, and writing.

I recently watched "The Zero Theorem" with my Brother. The scenes of people
walking on the street having advertisements pushed at them makes for good
science fiction but it is not the lifestyle I want.

------
contingencies
I stopped using phones a couple of years ago, after working on them for awhile
(mostly video stuff, some carrier billing - in the days when that was
possible, before the Androids stopped dreaming of electric settlement due to
aggressive Google policymaking) and concluding I really didn't like the
privacy implications.

However, circa start of the year I visited a friend who works for a major
cellular carrier in Australia. He showed me the latest greatest phone
(honestly can't recall which, but Android-based) and was enormously proud to
show me how the device had learned precisely how far it was for him to walk to
work and how far to his favourite restaurant.

Gee, I thought. It's figured out precisely the least useful stuff you're most
likely to know anyway, and you're not only looking at the device to validate
this (ie. unlearning this trivial information) but actually sharing it with
Google and anyone who steals/borrows/hacks your phone. Where's the plus side?

This Google Now stuff looks like more of the same: thinly veiled marketing
schmick on what essentially amounts to a filtered correlation of all of your
personal habits (real and virtual), wants and plans. A big privacy no-no, NSA
wet dream, desperately searching for a legitimate application.

------
nodata
If they could let app developers decide on which notifications appear on the
home screen, I wouldn't need automatic anything.

Take Llama for example. Llama manages some settings on my phone, but the only
way to keep it from being killed is to display a permanent notification. This
has the added benefit of it being easy to see which Location I am at by
swiping down the notification bar, but I never need this information on the
_home screen_.

~~~
maxerickson
Do you forget where you are? (I'm kidding, but maybe you could explain what
information the notification is really providing you, obviously not as little
as my joke implies).

Also, couldn't that app be using some sort of intent? There seem to be a
couple of options, and I wouldn't think the settings need to be adjusted
instantly.

------
radley
I have an exclusive email address that I use for the things Google Now can
track and provide updates: Amazon deliveries, flights, hotels, and car
reservations. For each of those, Now is convenient for looking up
confirmations, order numbers, contact info, and location.

Regarding traffic directions: I don't need actual directions but it's great to
be able to see how traffic looks with a swipe and plan alternate routes when
necessary, like when I need to get into downtown San Francisco @ 5:45pm.

There's a few more goodies. Sports score will be updated. Google Now will also
know when you're in a new town and offer suggestions for What to Eat nearby.

The main problem is that Now is useless until you can clear out the redundant
stuff: places you already know and routes you never take. Worse, it's not
clear dismissing those things are considered "yes of course" or "not liked".
WiIll be interesting to see how they interpret since it's all recommendation-
based.

------
ChikkaChiChi
I actually thought I liked Google Now until I read through these comments. It
sort of woke me up to the fact that Google stole iGoogle from us and this is
its replacement.

* They could easily drop in the ability for me to subscribe to an RSS feed, but they don't. * I don't have any way to tell it what I prioritize. Today I scrolled through 10 cards before finding the weather. * Going into "Customize" -> "Everything Else" has some absolutely laughable questions that it is using to inform itself about my tastes. Some of this cannot be based on my browsing habits.

If they won't give the users any access to configuring a tool for our needs,
what sort of warm and fuzzies are we supposed to get that they'll let
developers have access? Do I really need ANOTHER notification dock?

------
pwnna
Does this mean that more apps will not work without Google Apps installed on
the phone?

------
cjslep
> Not only will it fold the information you care most about into a single
> Google Now wrapper, it will help control the deluge of information and
> notifications that come with poking in and out of a dozen apps a day.

Wouldn't this face the same challenges as managing an e-mail account to
prevent too much spam/noise? Or is there some way Google Now scales with
number of apps that cuts spam down? It seems like the more apps it supports,
Google Now would have to be increasingly strict on what apps are allowed to
push to the single wrapper.

~~~
mattlutze
What would be interesting to me is to see the "what cards do I want to see?"
logic used with the core set of Google Now information applied to these other
app notifications.

As in, Now learns what app's announcements or what kind of announcements from
apps I always wipe from the dashboard, which ones I click through. Over time
it tunes itself to reduce or stop certain kinds of notifications so that I'm
just getting the notifications I'm going to want to see.

Right now it's just the individual apps that control their notifications (the
"give them everything" controls currently exposed don't really allow us to
manage the deluge in the _right_ ways). This could provide a better way to
control all that.

~~~
nkozyra
Yeah, I agree, and it won't work without this. Which means some sort of NLP so
that an app has the ability to separate the things it's attempting to show
through some sort of categorization.

------
TuringTest
For those that like me may be mislead by the title, the "open" is as in "open
API", not "open-source software".

The days where Google supported an open Android system are gone, gone, gone.

------
radley
HN Moderators: it's "Google Now", not "Google now..." thanks =)

------
WalterSear
This is a puff peice about a modestly useful google product. Google Now is
nothing more than a glorified secondary notification pane.

~~~
radley
It's actually a very useful and powerful Android tool: traffic info, flight
info, package tracking, and more automatically collected and updated in a
reference pane.

------
dantillberg
Sorry to be a pedant, but: I was confused for a moment about what this article
was about due to the casing of the title, "An open Google now is about to...",
which sounds like Google is becoming "open" and is "now about to..." do
something. I wondered, "what about Google being 'open' is going to make
Android smart?"

The problem starts on Wired's end, where the title was title-cased in the HTML
title, and upper-cased for the in-body header, leaving no trace of the
original intended casing, "An open Google Now is about to...". And then when
the article was submitted to Hacker News, where we traditionally sentence-case
things, the submitter had to do the sentence-casing themselves and overlooked
this finer point.

Alas, for if only CSS text-transforms could just magically make title- and
sentence-casing work...

~~~
frivoal
title casing (and sentence casing) is one of these problems that is easy for
humans to perform on a case by case basis, but hard to solve in an automated
and generic way.

Not only is it language dependent (and any solution baked into css needs to
work for all languages where it is relevant), and do various publishers have
slightly differing rules about it, but it also depends on the meaning, as this
example shows. Whether "Now" is part of the "Google Now" name, or works as an
adverb influences the casing.

CSS has become quite a bit more complicated these days, but it is still quite
far form being sentient.

TL;DR: Proper title casing is AI-complete

