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Comment by RyanZAG | Hacker News Reader

Google Now has a lot of promise, but I've been using it a bit since it was first released, and it's never actually provided me with any really useful information.

The promise behind Google Now is amazing, but it simply doesn't work well enough yet to be any kind of consideration. Here's hoping they manage to get the actual software in-line with the promise eventually!

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The user experience with Google Now varies heavily depending on your usage habits and the type of phone you have. The only thing Google Now showed me for months were outdated, inaccurate weather 'forecasts' that made absolutely no sense (and opening it took more than 30 seconds on my old Nexus S). Boy, was I disappointed.

But if you set your Settings to the right items, you enable all your Search History, and everything else, and you have a modern phone like a Nexus 4, Google Now is amazing. Really, really amazing. It's definitely there and it works fantastically well, if you care to set it up right.

> enable all your Search History

This is something I just can't bring myself to do. I disabled it years ago, along with all the other personalization options.

I don't mind giving them my location. I don't even mind them analyzing my mail. But I search for all kinds of crap, and I really really don't want anyone building a profile on me based on that.

The manual customization options in Google Now are sadly lacking. I've been able to add a few sports teams, but that's about it.

I suppose I could switch all my default searches to DuckDuckGo, then only use Google judiciously to deliberately train it. Hm, I think I will.

Its not just training, though... It will update you based on searches you make on an ongoing basis, often in very unexpected but nice ways. To make that work out, I think you really just need to be using Google search day to day.

this. I often will fire off a quick search for a restaurant I'm going to go to or am interested in going to, before I leave. Then the directions are on the google now card for me for the next hour or so, so if I feel like checking the restaurant out I click the card and I get directions.

It's amazing.

I've always been under the impression that they're building a profile on you, like it or not. All you're really choosing is whether or not you too will take advantage of it, or if Google is the sole benefactor of your activities.

I too search all kinds of crap, and I don't mind anyone to build a profile on me based on that, if that's what I like. Some more crap in the future might be relevant for me, and I don't want to miss out!

What makes you think disabling search history is going to stop them?

Just train yourself to use Incognito Mode when you're looking for porn.

This in wonderful advice. More broadly, use one browser and account for the stuff you'd like to train Google on, and another (in incognito mode) for the stuff you'd prefer not to add to your profile.

Of course, they'll probably still know its you, but one imagines the algorithms will respect your preferences (as it would make the service worse if they didn't).

Eh, porn is the least of my concerns. Google's probably smart enough to filter that out when making decisions anyway, I assume.

Maybe I'm strange, but there's a fairly broad array of stuff I'd rather keep off the record. Anything that could possibly imply illegal activity, for example.

I too had it off for a long time, but eventually enabled it. It's really nice to have Google Now automatically show directions to places you recently searched for in Maps.

Any guides on setting it up right? I've got all search history and everything enabled, but it doesn't seem to be amazing yet. I'm not in Mountain View or even USA though - so more than likely that's the problem.

I have a Galaxy Nexus and don't allow it to search history and still get a lot of info I consider useful. I think the only thing I allow it access to is email and location. Stuff like having a card for every package I get shipped or flight res saves me a lot of time. I've never seen outdated information on it.

I've had the Nexus 4 for about two weeks and it's surprised me a handful of times. You really have to use Google services to get full use out of it though. Like adding locations to events in Google Calendar (and, you know, using Google Calendar in the first place) to get the "you should probably get on the road now" messages.

Also things like birthday reminders seem to only work with your friends on Google+. None of my friends use Google+ and I only use it for specific groups. And I've yet to see a package tracking card, but it will be cool if they make improvements and stuff like that starts actually working. Things like that are small but on the day-to-day level would be pretty helpful.

Aside from that, the Nexus 4 is a nice device and refreshing change from iOS.

>And I've yet to see a package tracking card, but it will be cool if they make improvements and stuff like that starts actually working.

Odd. It usually pulls in tracking data within a few minutes of a ship confirmation hitting my inbox in Gmail. The only time I've seen it have trouble is with some USPS tracking numbers or if I place multiple orders from the same vendor in short succession (e.g., I place two Amazon orders a few minutes apart and Gmail thinks they're part of the same email thread).

Shipment tracking has actually been one of the most reliable (and convenient) features of Google Now for me.

This probably won't be seen since this thread is off the front page now, but the reason package cards (and all GMail based cards) don't work is because I'm using Google Apps.

http://productforums.google.com/d/msg/mobile/B-jW1pAZpdM/Pdm...

No real reason given. Just, "NOPE." Le sigh.

If you want to see how awesome it is, here's what you do. Purchase some tickets for a sporting event, and schedule a reservation for a restaurant afterwards. Make sure you purchase the tickets online and get the reservation through something like OpenTable so the confirmations get to your email.

Enjoy!

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