The problem here, is you're speculating based on logic. I'm giving you real world use. Real world use > speculation. The problem with your logic is that, you fail to realize the phones where already tracking you anyway. When you first set the phone up and it asks you to give Google permission to track your location. So the phone was already gathering the same information it is now in Google Now. The difference is now it displays the cards, whereas before it didn't. The phone is still performing the same functions as before, hence no extra battery drain.
So Siri assigns a label to a contact, big deal. I can just as easily ask Google Now to show me the contact information for the person I'm asking about. The difference is, you saying girlfriend or saying their name. From a functionality standpoint, it's exactly the same. Titles really aren't necessary, and don't add anything to the experience. The same way you can say a title, you can say a name. So in that, it is par.
I'm not interested in having to think about what kinds of questions I need to say "Google" in front of. I just want to ask my phone my question and let it sort it out. I shouldn't have to remember to say "Google" in front of some things, and not in front of others. I should just be able to ask my question and let the phone do the work.
You have a very loose definition of intelligence. Assigning a label to a contact isn't intelligent, that's just cataloging. Intelligence is having an appointment scheduled for 3:00pm, there's traffic that's going to make it take 20 minutes longer to get there, and your phone notifying you that you should leave 20 minutes earlier to arrive on time due to traffic. That's intelligent. Intelligent is your phone knowing where you are about to go, and planning your route without you even inputting anything into it to tell it that. Intelligent is your phone knowing the Braves are playing, and periodically notifying you of the score because it's your favorite team. Intelligent is your phone notifying you of what time the next train is going to get there as you wait on the train platform. Intelligent is your phone suggesting a place for you to go eat, based on past places you've went to (even though you never input it into the phone even in the past). These things are what intelligent is. Intelligent is your phone knowing you and learning you, not recalling a pre-defined label you manually assigned to a contact in your phone.
You're selling it short big time.
I agree with about half of what you said.
Yes, the functionality you described is very intelligent, which is why I'm not really bashing it. My only comments towards the Cards functionality, is its accuracy, it's usefullness, and it's hit on battery. Read up on how the Google Now Cards work:
http://support.google.com/nexus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2669989
Do your research, and you will see the phone is not already gathering this location information. It's just like Google Latitude, another useful Google feature that most people turn off because of the hit on battery life. Do a search for Google Latitude Battery and you'll see the complaints.
There really isn't any debating this point, there is no room for differing opinions here, it is a fact. You can debate that the hit on battery life is worth it, you can even argue that the hit is so small that most people wouldn't notice, but you cannot argue there is no hit on battery life when it is constantly checking your location, constantly checking traffic and constantly downloading information based on what it knows about you.
Regarding accuracy, my friend has Cards enabled on his phone, and it recently woke him up on a Saturday telling him he has to leave for work soon
It's not perfect yet, and I'm sure that part will get better. I'm just not impressed with Google Traffic in general. It still tells me it'll take 24 minutes to commute during rush hour, when I know it takes me an hour minimum. If something's going to be giving me traffic based alerts, I don't want it to be Google Traffic.
While I find it interesting you think it
doesn't impact the experience to have to say the persons name instead of "girlfriend", but it
does impact the experience if you say "Google" in front of your search term, you're still missing the point. Even if you don't say "Google" with Siri,
it will still give you the same information. Google Now will never tell me my girlfriend's email address, no matter how I say it.
In any case, that's just a single example, there are numerous examples where Siri is more intelligent than Google Now.
The main problem with your argument The iGentleman, is you're using Cards as an example of Google Now's intelligence, in a thread that's not about cards. The video does not depict cards, it depicts a series of questions asked by the user, and in this category, Siri's intelligence wins.
