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Comment by hnriot | Hacker News Reader

While this is incredibly smart and a very impressive application of machine learning, does anyone actually want this? I'm quite capable of looking at traffic reports or bus times myself when I need to. I actually think I'd find this pretty annoying, if my phone told me sports score before I'd had a chance to watch the game, or if it started second guessing me at every turn. This has the feel of valet parking, while it sounds fine and convenient and luxurious, in reality I find it very undesirable and will avoid places that have it.

There's something very much at the core of life in experiencing it for ourselves without having a computer to hand hold us the whole time and remind us it's time leave for work. I don't find it creepy, just embarrassing to feel like I need to be babied so much by technology.

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Earlier browsers had one address box, and one search box.

Chrome moved both together - and many people liked it.

I'm sure you like Google Instant and Google Suggest - with the results/search terms showing up even as you type - allowing you to refine your query on the fly even before you complete it!

Google Now is one big leap in the same direction.

I search for a lot of things, and I would like instant access to a lot of things that I've searched for before.

If my phone can figure out what I need access to 'Now' because I've searched for it before or it knows my routing - I say bring it on - make my life easier - and give me more time to do my stuff instead of handling logistics and trivia.

Look at the examples - giving you transit timings when you enter a bus-stop, or giving you traffic conditions to your office or next appointment, or driving directions to the place you searched for. Why not using the super computer in your pocket for that instead of focusing your mind on it and distracting you from your life?

And either you're watching the game NOW, and therefore the score is not relevant to you, or you're not able to watch the game, so the scores are useful. Presumably, the number of people who time-shift a live game is not that high. Those folks can simply delete the card the first time and never see it again.

Google Now is adding a rich information layer to your life via your phone. You can ignore it or you can use it.

I actually hate Google Instant. I like to start typing before I'm done looking at what came up and I like to take notes in the search field. I wish I could turn it off, but that setting never seems to persist across sessions.

Tbh if I have a calendar entry with a location attached, I'd rather just skip the step of typing the address myself of the computer is smart enough to do it automatically.

I also really like the examples like "how tall is the Eiffel Tower?" Sometimes I want to know a specific piece of information, sometimes I want to read up on something. This allows me to ask specific questions and get poignant answers.

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