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Google Search App Brings Siri-Competitor to iPhone
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Playing around with it:
-Google Voice Search much faster than Siri
-GVS is better at visualizing information
-Web searches happen right in the GVS app. Siri opens Safari (would be nice if Siri just popped up a web view when doing a web search so you wouldn't have to leave Siri)
-GVS voice recognition slightly worse than Siri (however, I don't know if Google Voice Search gets better the more you use it like Siri does; if it does then it's too early to say this for sure)
-Wolfram Alpha integration with Siri lets Siri display a lot more info (even if the presentation isn't that great). Would be nice for Google to add WA results.
-Siri can do OS-related tasks that GVS can't, but that's not Google's fault. However, Google could integrate its own apps. "Send an email" in GVS could create a new email in Gmail; "Lunch with John tomorrow at 1PM" could create a Google Calendar event, etc. Since I use Gmail/Google Calendar/etc, this would be nice.
Google did a very nice job. But I also like Siri a lot too!
-Google Voice Search much faster than Siri
-GVS is better at visualizing information
-Web searches happen right in the GVS app. Siri opens Safari (would be nice if Siri just popped up a web view when doing a web search so you wouldn't have to leave Siri)
-GVS voice recognition slightly worse than Siri (however, I don't know if Google Voice Search gets better the more you use it like Siri does; if it does then it's too early to say this for sure)
-Wolfram Alpha integration with Siri lets Siri display a lot more info (even if the presentation isn't that great). Would be nice for Google to add WA results.
-Siri can do OS-related tasks that GVS can't, but that's not Google's fault. However, Google could integrate its own apps. "Send an email" in GVS could create a new email in Gmail; "Lunch with John tomorrow at 1PM" could create a Google Calendar event, etc. Since I use Gmail/Google Calendar/etc, this would be nice.
Google did a very nice job. But I also like Siri a lot too!
Really? First of all this app has had voice search for some time. It's just improved not new.
Secondly it does not do many things that Siri does which should be obvious.
Secondly it does not do many things that Siri does which should be obvious.
Again, it probably depends on where you live. For me, Yelp produces results that are laughably incomplete, inaccurate and/or outdated. Maybe Yelp is very US-centric or something. Apple seems to go for those partners. They can't give me local weather, they can't give me local movie listings and so on. Google does all of it, even if you live in some puny town in Denmark or Poland. Apple basically stops caring once they've got the capital of each country covered.
Nope, but since Apple is at war with them and have thrown them out of everything except web search in Safari, I don't consider them one of Apple's partners.
They can do whatever they feel like, as long as they make up their minds: Go all-in and be the best, or get out.
Or it'll get silently axed. Apple tend to do that when they have a lame duck.
Just downloaded the app and it appears to have no sound for me on my iPhone 4
Is this normal, or have I missed a setting?
Also, I've noticed it's probably accurate for people living in America and maybe Canada but when I ask for an auto mechanic (Australia) it gives me a listing for mechanics that are 250km away, unlike Siri.
Is this normal, or have I missed a setting?
Also, I've noticed it's probably accurate for people living in America and maybe Canada but when I ask for an auto mechanic (Australia) it gives me a listing for mechanics that are 250km away, unlike Siri.
As others have pointed out, it is missing context. Sorry but you cannot blame Apple for that one. They could implement a session cookie for the webservice calls made by the app that contained no identifying information but helped to maintain the context of a session. Another alternative would be a session key passed back and forth in the query response. That stops being RESTful and more like RPC but I see it as a mixture of REST and RPC because the initial request has no context and the key only provides a way for the server to maintain context of the conversation between the client and server.
Holy lord this is impressive. Siri, nice meeting you but I found something that actually works.
I've had Google's Siri equivalent on my Galaxy Nexus since Jelly Bean was released. On an Android phone it does everything Siri does (ie. it can access all my contacts, calendar, files, music, etc.) and does it better.
There's nothing new here except Google bringing what they can (the instant Google search with smart cards) to iOS.
Kudos to Google for not withholding this from iOS in a feeble attempt to sell more Nexus phones. Also just highlights how withholding Siri from pre-4S iPhones was a marketing ploy to sell new phones.
There's nothing new here except Google bringing what they can (the instant Google search with smart cards) to iOS.
Kudos to Google for not withholding this from iOS in a feeble attempt to sell more Nexus phones. Also just highlights how withholding Siri from pre-4S iPhones was a marketing ploy to sell new phones.
Well it's clearly happening locally, in the app. Apple for some reason needs to bounce the recorded voice data against their servers, resulting in Siri sometimes taking her sweet time.
I take back my praise. It does this a lot! It gets the word right as I say it but then replaces it with some other word consistent with popular search terms. It constantly overrides what I say even though it got it right the first time. This makes it very frustrating and frankly unusable.
I have an iPhone 4 so this is nice. Gave it a a few test tries and it works very well.
I like
Did you get a voice response back?
No way that this is as good as SIRI.
All that Google ever does is to fire up the copy machines and imitate everything that Apple does first. But Apple has a huge head start and Google will NEVER catch up.
Google does not respect its users privacy. Stay away unless you want every secret aspect of our life to be sold to the highest bidder.
All that Google ever does is to fire up the copy machines and imitate everything that Apple does first. But Apple has a huge head start and Google will NEVER catch up.
Google does not respect its users privacy. Stay away unless you want every secret aspect of our life to be sold to the highest bidder.
I just wish Google was a little better at marketing the fact that their voice search tech has been available on Android for a while. They're terrible at advertising, and could really take a big chunk of Apple's market share if they were just a little more aggressive.
I'm quite glad I switched to Android, to be honest. Haven't missed a beat and the interface is just so much more intuitive and easy to use; I don't get frustrated that I can't do things unless I launch a task-specific app.
Can't wait to get the Nexus 4 either!
I'm quite glad I switched to Android, to be honest. Haven't missed a beat and the interface is just so much more intuitive and easy to use; I don't get frustrated that I can't do things unless I launch a task-specific app.
Can't wait to get the Nexus 4 either!
Did you even try the app or did you just write a standard rant that doesn't apply here? Apple's voice recognition does not have a huge head start, this app demonstrates that they're already lagging behind, just like they did with the miserable voice recognition they had before Siri, "Voice Control" which never got a word right.
Well at least they don't store recordings of my voice input, unlike Apple: http://mashable.com/2012/06/28/apple-siri-stores-voiceprint/
Essentially yes but it pulls information from the web and presents/speaks it to you. It will also display the actual Google search results page below, but it'll always present information to you in a consumable manner if it can, ie. photos, definitions, weather results, sports scores, statistics, recent news stories, etc.
On my Galaxy Nexus at least I can ask it something like "Who directed Iron Man" and it'll actually pull up a picture of Jon Favreau, instead of just giving me a search result for "who directed Iron Man."