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Comment by Devolver | Hacker News Reader

It sounds like you're angry because you don't feel I'm giving enough credit to Google Now.

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.

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>I think Google Now is really interesting, but it's more like a "pre-emptive search" engine than a "task completion engine."

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.

A classic example of Apple trying to fix this is a Maps app for Mavericks that has a "send to phone" feature. Something Google had and already retired in favor of Now and that works amazingly well.

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.

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