Will Apple Sideline Siri Before She Kills Google?
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Apple ought to be worried. Every user that switches to using Google Maps/Chrome/Gmail is another user they're losing data on.
Talk about hyperbole. Google in danger of being killed by Siri? Either the OP has never used Google's voice tools or he has a lot of stock in Apple...how else to explain his inability to contemplate how Google's data strength would make it easy to ape Siri's task specific functionality...I mean, wasn't this well demonstrated during the Maps fiasco?
Just one data point of course. Yet, I'd be willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of iOS users don't use Siri but for the speech recognition version of fart jokes here and there.
It's so obvious that the author has never used Google Now and/or has no idea what he's talking about in general. Painful; I honestly checked twice to make sure this wasn't a "post from the past" where we were jestfully mocking in hindsight the silly "OMG SIRI IS THE BEST THING EVER" attitude from two years ago.
Honestly I thought that was dead even before Google Now came out and sprinted laps around it...
But I think you're missing the point: Siri has major disruptive potential that isn't being realized at all (by Apple).
Google Now is kinda a half-measure, and if Google wants to really defend itself against disruption (not just from Siri, but from the task-completion engine paradigm) it has to go all out on Google Now.
But then it risks bulldozing the AdWords model.
And Google is already doing (or it's obvious they're in progress for) all of those things.
How can anyone who has honestly used both services, in any world in our known Universe, call "Now" a "half-measure" compared to Siri? You could cut off one of its legs and it'd still lap it.
Google is going all out on Now. What are they averaging, 3 new card integrations every 2-3 weeks? EVERYTHING funnels into it. It literally knows where I'm going 90% of the time I get in my car. It alerts me when my packages are delivered. It's far more intelligent and has access to more of my data than Apple will likely ever have for any of their customers.
Here, I'll make it easy: What opportunity does Apple have with Siri that Google doesn't have or hasn't already leveraged with Now?
>But then it risks bulldozing the AdWords model.
Nah. I made a note to myself earlier today aloud "Google, note to self, pick up toilet paper". That was instantly automatically saved in Keep. Now, because Google knows I'm driving home, they can look up a retail partner that is close on my route home and automatically remind, navigate me there and then back home. There are a ton of usage stories like this. What if my partner emails me a "pick this up at the store"? They can add a filter like they're already doing for flights and shipping and they're done, they get that integration and visibility surfaced "free" through Now. There are PLENTY of opportunities for Google because of the data they have access to.
(Cynical hackers forget that advertising works because in some cases it ADDS VALUE for the consumer. That's what Ad Words have always been about. If they're not intelligently targeted, they're useless.)
I don't see any reason that Google Now has to obliviate AdWords. And in fact, funneling data to/through Now gives huge, huge advantages when we already know that Google is work on Glass and Watch.
But the piece itself wasn't about Google Now; it was about how Apple is screwing up the opportunity to do something really awesome with Siri, for reasons that I don't really understand.
For the record: I think Google Now is really interesting, but it's more like a "pre-emptive search" engine than a "task completion engine." If Google really builds a task-completion engine (and they certainly have the talent to do so), it would change the search paradigm.
But they make tons and tons of money on the existing search paradigm, so they have an innovators' dilemma.
It's both? Is there some "task" that Siri can do that Now can't? Because it has intuition, it's bad?
>it was about how Apple is screwing up the opportunity to do something really awesome with Siri
And my point is that they have none of the data necessary to do the real smart, amazing things that Now already does and will be able to. Even now, I guarantee (okay, not really, I can't say this as inside fact) that the Bing team isn't giving Apple query data unless it goes through Siri, so they're still never, ever going to have the full picture of their user like Google has.
I guess my point is, why would Siri try to fight Google on this, they have no unique leverage or technical or data advantage, it seems like any money spent trying to compete with Now's intelligence would be foolish unless they're really just going to go full-frontal on all Google services which would be utter insane suicide based on iCloud.
I mean, when you say "task based", what is more task based than a service that automatically notifies you about tasks like flights or shopping lists or package shipping notifications or directions to your destination, all without you never lifting a finger, based purely on your email and search habits (this already exists, today, with Now). That's as "task" driven as I can imagine. Each "card" is basically a task.
If I use Google Maps on my desktop, search for directions, then choose public transportation, that's what goes to Now. If on another day I choose bike directions, that is what goes to Now.
Same goes for open tabs in Chrome, searching for flights and more. You perform the task on your computer and your Android phone, with Google Now, "just knows" what you are/were looking for.
One cool feature that I think came from ITA Software purchase is that, if the flight you looked for is delayed, Now lets you know it's delayed and change your directions to fit the new flight arrival if needed. When I first saw the delayed info on Now I didn't believe it, so I dismissed. Upon arrival on Heathrow, the arrival board was showing the exact same delay as Now. I was blown away.
I'll post a few articles and I'll let you figure things out.
"Google earns 80% of its mobile revenue from iOS, just 20% from Android"
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/29/google_earns_80_of...
"Despite Smaller Share iOS Devices Generate 67 Percent Of Mobile Internet Traffic"
http://marketingland.com/report-despite-smaller-share-ios-de...
"More (Local) Searches Coming From iOS Than Android"
http://searchengineland.com/more-local-searches-coming-from-...
"Two-Thirds of Google’s Mobile Search Traffic Comes From iOS Devices"
http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/two-thirds-of-googles-mo...
I'm happy to provide humor. Cool links, bro. Nice how they all refer to the same old, stale data, but you list them so nicely in a list as if there's some obvious conclusion that is somehow relevant to this discussion.
Siri's a gimmick and everyone knows it. I'm baffled by the attribution of some magic to it that is going to allow people to stop using Google. If anything, those ridiculous links would indicate that Google's not going anywhere, anytime. I want to know how Siri is going to do all of this magical nonsense when Apple hasn't done any of the work to make themselves available to the data necessary to do so. As I've mentioned basically from the beginning. Sigh.
Oh and several of those are "total mobile revenue". We all know people buy through the App Store more.
So they're already implementing uPnP or some sort of MAC address identification to make a mental map of the devices and media devices in your home and can already make recommendations for your actions/tasks/behaviors based on that. Nuts, that code is in place, waiting to be leveraged in cool ways.
Yeah, I'm sure Google's fucked.
>What is it you don't understand?
Actually, any of what that garbled mess was at the beginning of that reply? Custom app/searchbox, wtf does that even mean? The article actually goes out of it's way to talk about how Siri sucked when it was used as a standalone app. >_<
Apple can customize the UI and the search results on iOS devices if they want. Apple can take Google's search results (without Google's ads) or Bing/Yahoo, format it, add information from Yelp, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, WolframAlpha, etc. Make this format the default "search results" and make it universally accessible from Siri, the browser, apps, and so on...
>Apple can take Google's search results (without Google's ads)
LOL. Why I bothered even reply to this comment is a mystery. Yeah, I'm sure they can just sprinkle in that stuff and it will magically be great right? Just like Maps blew our mind as soon as they finished that very last strategic partnership, right?
BTW: Google already does all of those things. Kthanx
Maps != search
Google doesn't have a monopoly on quality data when it comes to search.
LOL
>lol it's funny how upset you are about all these.
Nah, I'm laughing at how clueless and misinformed you are on basically everything in the thread so far.
"U mad" is the standard response for trolls that can't help themselves. I don't even see how what I wrote is construed as "mad".
Here, tell me more about how Apple can just screen scrape Google. I want to laugh some more.
>Another wannabe-knee-jerk-lets-copy-Apple product from Google. Why am I not surprised.
Wow. Just read through your comments, I shouldn't even be typing out these letters. You're obviously a little shit troll. Accusing a company of copying a product that hasn't even been leaked or announced or hinted at by the company. What a fucking poor persecution complex you've got.
A sad little troll that pines for Apple, laments that geeks can't get girlfriends and runs circular logic about "big government"; just shoot me.
When I say "half-measure" I don't mean that Google Now is worse than Siri. I mean it's not really an all-out assault on the existing model of Google Search. It's more like a complement to it, rather than a disruptor.
A real task-completion engine would be disruptive, and not a half-measure.