Comment by sambeau | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sambeau | Hacker News Reader

If anything I see the opposite happening. Siri will pull users away from search and advertisers and back towards expert guides and personal recommendations.

  Siri, what was that restaurant that John liked?
  Siri, where should I eat with my birthday friends?
  Siri, recommend me a live gig?
  Siri, recommend me a funny movie?

Suddenly we have have all the possibilities of the social graph and Netflix-style recommendations.

Would Apple be bold enough to use Siri to collect & correct this information?

  Sam, did you enjoy the film?
  Yes, Siri, very much
  How many stars out of five would you give it?
  Four.
  Thank you, Sam. I will try to recommend similar films in the future.

It would be fascinating if this happened:

  Would you like to recommend it to your friends?
  Yes, Siri, I would.

I could see a vague possibility of Songbird-style interactions, too.

  Siri, can you notify me when tickets for The National are announced.
  Siri, please let me know when the next Quiz Night is going to be.

I doubt Apple will ever do this, but you never know:

  Siri, please inform me of upcoming special offers at HealthSpa

  Sam, did you enjoy the film?
  Yes, Siri, very much
  How many stars out of five would you give it?
  Four.
  Thank you, Sam. I will try to recommend similar films in    the future.

I Could totally see this happenning in a Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB app. if Apple ever allow third party apps access to Siri APIs.

Criticker might be a better option, since the recommendations backend is already in place.

(Note, I'm not affiliated, just a happy user)

I'm more worried about the follow use case:

  Siri, did you enjoy the film?
  Yes, Sam, very much
  How many stars out of five would you give it?
  Four.
  Thank you, Siri. Would you like to go to dinner?
  No thank you.  Would you like to play a game?

This is exactly what I want. :)

I was just remarking the other day about how much I am hoping Siri comes with a Joshua voice.

You may wonder why Apple just released an iTunes Movie Trailers app:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/12/apple-releases-itunes-movie-tr...

Well the 'trailers' part is just an excuse. Its real purpose is to provide the showtime and ticket purchase facilities which can then be hooked up to Siri to automate all of this. Apple currently uses Rotten Tomatoes for its movie ratings on the iTunes Store, but as you mention the integration of the iTunes Movie Trailers App, Siri and user feedback is likely the future plan to replace any reliance on third parties.

The next step for Siri is e-commerce; to integrate purchasing of tickets & table bookings through the voice interface. The original Siri (prior to Apple) did this and its only a matter of time that Apple re-introduces it with that extra bit of polish and automation through the iTunes / App Store CC account.

Off topic—

  Sam, did you enjoy the film?
  Yes, Siri, very much
  How many stars out of five would you give it?
  Four.
  Thank you, Sam. I will try to recommend similar films in the future.

Has anyone watched the 2009 film Moon? I read that whole conversation in Kevin Spacey's voice.

I didn't even realize I was doing it until you mentioned it.

I read it in a HAL 9000 voice:

"The Siri AI series is the most reliable computer ever made. No Siri AI has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error. "

I like your first set of examples. I keep thinking it would be great if it were integrated with OpenTable. Then you could ask for recommendations for a restaurant with availability for a reservation at a specific time or time range and then reserve it. That would be a killer experience.

I'm not sure though about Siri asking for more information though. Having your phone start asking you questions would be disruptive -- the audio equivalent of a pop-up on a webpage asking you to fill out a survey. The only thing that would make Siri asking you for information unprompted than the pop-up is that it could happen anywhere.

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