Siri is a voice-activated personal assistant that Apple created for the iPhone a couple of years ago. Since then, a number of Android apps have popped up to serve the same purpose on the other platform.
Android is a Google product, so it stands to reason that their own personal assistant tool, Google Now, would have a huge advantage over, well, everything else. In addition to being a serious Siri-competitor, perhaps a victor, Google Now integrates your personal search history and more into “cards” of information, which are displayed at your command, when and where you need them.
For example, on your morning commute, a card might show your commute time and an alternate route to avoid traffic. You can get a report of how many miles you drove or walked/ran each month. If you’re a sports fan, Google Now might feed up cards with up-to-date scores and news. And if you’re headed to the airport, Google Now may help you pull up your boarding pass and show you the weather at your destination. And if you’ve been searching the web for Kim Kardashian news, you may get an automatic update if she announces a pregnancy, divorce or prison sentence.
Google Voice search also competes with Siri by providing a voice recognition feature for searching Google with Google Chrome browser.
Google Voice search made Beth’s Top Efficiency Tools list!
Watch their short promo video:
What Do You Think about Google Now Technology?
My thoughts on Google Now… are we ready to have a machine (and the company behind that machine) know that much about us? I suppose I’m naive to think that they don’t already know that stuff, but perhaps I would rather remain a little in the dark about the information I’m providing. Ahhh, progress.
What do you think?