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Comment by kwijibob | Hacker News Reader

"Ok, Google" makes everyone hate saying the word "Google". It is now linked to the emotions of frustration and anger forever.

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"OK Google"/"hey Google" is one of the reasons I went with Amazon's products instead! (other reasons include that they seem to understand my voice more reliably than Google or Microsoft's systems). I get to call it Computer instead of Alexa too, though if I were stuck with Alexa it would still be preferable to Google (or Amazon for that matter).

It's isn't just branding though, if I'm right. The wake word needs to be something that is easy to pick out from a complex audio environment and not be a regular part of common speech so cause confusion (computer fails a bit in that regard) so allowing completely custom wake words might cause reliability issues. Also some might choose wake words that the brands don't want to be seen listening for: I might choose "slave" as a Blake's 7 reference for instance but that could easily offend some if they overhear, and there are many other epithets, slurs, and swears, that would not be deemed suitable either.

“Computer” seems humane. There’s a teenager down the street named Alexa. She apparently gets asked the weather a lot. :(

I tried this for about a week. But the amount of Star Trek TNG reruns I am constantly watching put a humorous end to that.

As a Radiohead fan I could live with the occassional misplaying of Ok Computer.

Amazon devices don't need the "OK" do that hasn't happened (to me).

Though it can get a little confused occasionally when I'm playing some variety of Star Trek on the nearby TV.

My Alexa logs are 10% brief clips of Geordi Laforge making demands.

Thanks, now I can't read "Computer" without it being in Patrick Stewart's baritone.

I think Thom would approve.

"Hello Computer" seems pretty neutral, it reminds me of this sketch from IT crowd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu88J5JL8Hw

Or Scotty in ST:IV "The One With The Wales": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaVgRj2e5_s&t=172s

I do seem to recall that being able to set a customer wake-word was in the works at one point.

I don't see why the system could not be designed such that one could submit a wake-word, which is analyzed for suitability in terms of being sufficiently distinct in complex audio environments, and then checked against a blacklist.

Shouldn't be beyond Google's technical capabilities.

The thing is, a LOT of people avoid Google Home/Assistant because they simply can't bring themselves to blurt out cheesy branding like that.

They really ought to solve that problem. Probably they will right about the time they port Inbox bundling to Gmail and provide a Drive sync client for Linux (it's been, a decade?).

> then checked against a blacklist

Unfortunately "enumerating the bad" is a strategy that never survives contact with the public.

Why is this a problem that needs solving? If the user chooses an ineffective word they'll figure it out pretty quickly... and if they choose an offensive one-- that's on them.

They could also walk around saying offensive words when not addressing the computer.

Or is google planning on 'fixing' that too?

It wouldn't be a problem if all people were decent and rational.

Unfortunately some would reprogram other people's devices to cause offence for a jape and some will get offended and blame the company for letting it happen.

The difference from Google/Amazon/Apple/MS's point of view is that if I run around yelling the N word and their device doesn't even notice then they can't be seen to be complicit by unreasonable people. It would just be me being an arse.

Heck, some would get offended at the possibility of one of a company's devices responding to loaded words like that even if it never actually happened.

Of course there is another reason: having people use the same word re-enforces brand recognition even if the wake word is not the actual brand just a word/name people associate with it.

Try rclone for syncing gdrive.

One of the reasons?

It's honestly the reason for me.

Such a minor thing, and it's super annoying. Google lost out on hundreds of dollars from me on this simple change.

I'd go for "Zen".

And the resulting announcements. "INFORMATION: Four minutes have elapsed." for a timer, etc.

I’d pay money for Peter Tuddenham’s Zen to respond to commands.

I’d buy a big subwoofer to make the INFORMATION response shake the house too!

Considering Amazon uses "Alexa" and Apple uses "Siri" and Microsoft uses "Cortana", it is strange that Google opted not to pick an alternative name

Is out? Since when has Google been good at branding? Look at Google/Android TV’s history. Or even Google Play.

> Since when has Google been good at branding?

Google's Mid-2000s marketing and product-nomenclature was on-point though:

* Google Mail

* Google Maps

* Google Image Search

That's because it was hardly a product name - they just slapped their corporate name of top of the respective noun...

Sometimes the best decisions are the simplest.

Well they've named it Google Assistant. I think I'd prefer "ok/hey assistant".

I'd prefer it be treated like passwords - upon installation, you should change the default immediately.

I refuse to use a service that requires me to say its globally recognized name so often I will probably become brainwashed to it. And then there's the older hacks with TV commercials that took advantage of those defaults, and the (cooler) hypersonic transmitted voice command attacks, or the ones delivered by vibrating the device's microphone with a laser, etc.

None of these attacks would have worked if the product trigger wasn't so predictable from the get-go.

Eventually even Raspberry Pi stopped using the default pi/raspberry default combination. How we invoke our voice-activated programs should be treated with equal care.

I assume this lets the wakeword listening model be simpler.

Call me childish but I think "OK <profane insult>" would take a long time to wear thin.

This reminds me of the great Sci-fi book series "Old Man's War", where the soldiers get a thought-controlled computer called "Brain Pal™" installed in their head. After installation they first have to choose a name and almost everyone uses a swear word for that. The main protagonist then keeps activating it with the phrase "Hey Asshole". I'm pretty sure that this book came out way before Google Assistant.

> I'm pretty sure that this book came out way before Google Assistant.

Or maybe not.

/s /h

Fuckface, play Beethoven's 5th.

"Hey fuckface"

"Hey Larry"

"Hey Sergey" is more catchy

Exactly

Google Maps and Google Image Search were called that and are still around, but "Google Mail" was never called that and isn't now.

I'd also add their insistence on using the same branding approach for experimental apps as their core offerings. A new app named `Google $RandomNoun` has a really high chance of being killed a few years from now, while `Google Search` and `Google Maps` don't. I'm sure the company wants to use the same structure to give new products an initial boost, but they seem weirdly indifferent to the long term damage it's doing to the overall brand.

They’re not weirdly indifferent, they’re busy shovelling cash into their vaults from their advertising oriented businesses

The used to call things Google Labs Foo.

That idea was canned...

The team who developed it chose that so their product couldn’t be killed. Could you imagine the headlines?

True story.

(By the way not a true story as far as I know -- it's just the kind of thing someone telling a tall tale usually finishes with).

So, I can't find the reference googling it now, but apparently Jeff Bezos really wanted Alexa to be called "Amazon" (pretty similar to Ok Google).

I think he didn't want to dilute the brand, and have the association front of mind or something, but the people on the alexa project managed to convince him to go with alexa instead (as it's confusing, and arguably a better name).

I think that's part of the reason for the different wake words, one of which is amazon (though the confusion with people called alexa is likely a much bigger one. It's probably why they have amazon in that list at least).

Very interesting. I can’t help feel the irony given Alexa itself was a brand Bezos acquired* in 1999 to get in on being a Search Engine just when Google was on the rise...

I can hear it now “We finally have a use for that brand we spent all that money on..”

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet

Oh wow, I didn't know that, they're the guys that do alexa traffic rankings. Didn't really know it was owned by amazon. Thanks for the info!

They would have had to pay the Roddenberry estate licensing money.

https://www.techspot.com/news/46668-googles-answer-to-siri-m...

"OK, Sirotta"? :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol#Etymology

Or, was it prescient branding?

At some point you could say “Ok Jarvis” as an Easter egg.

„Ok Glass“

Google: /starts playing Einstein on the Beach, the 9-hour version/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_on_the_Beach