Apple Tells Siri To Stop Recommending Nokia

judgecorp writes "Apple has changed the answer Siri gives to the question 'What is the best smartphone ever?' to prevent the voice-driven assistant from promoting the Nokia Lumia 900. Originally Siri trawled online reviews on the web, using the Wolfram Alpha search engine, to come up with the Lumia, much to Apple's embarrassment. Now, Apple has intervened, replacing that answer with a joke: 'Wait there are other phones?'"

Comments

Not just Apple

[crazyjj]

Do a search on Google for "What is the best web browser" and guess what, you'll get a nice list of reviews, every single one of which lists Google Chrome as the best web browser. Oddly enough, if you do the same search in Bing, you get a few results that don't seem to show up near the top of the Google search.

Basically, never look for objective information from someone who has their own horse in the race. I would no more trust Apple with advice on computer or smartphone purchasing advice than I would trust Norton with advice on the best anti-virus software.

Re:Not just Apple

[buchner.johannes]

The term is "search engine Filter Bubble" -- see the nice introduction at http://dontbubble.us/ (admittedly focussed on avoiding personalisation).
If you use a meta search engine that doesn't collect personal information, such as DuckDuckGo.com, you can escape that problem.

Re:Not just Apple

[DanTheStone]

I get this one, which has Chrome and Firefox tied, on my first page of Google results. It doesn't look like Google is deliberately and directly biasing those search results like Apple.

Re:Not just Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting. Second result for me is Opera, and I'm a Chrome user.

Re:Not just Apple

[h4rr4r]

Why in the world would you google "What is the best web browser"?

Stupid shit like that is what is breaking google today, and why it is so much less useful than it used to be. You can't even get the damn thing to include what it considers punctuation anymore.

Googling "Web Browser Best", without quotes, gets you a first page of all review articles on that topic as you would expect, only the last link points to chrome.

Re:Not just Apple

[h4rr4r]

It does, this is why I tend to be able to find stuff others cannot.

Use tools correctly and they work better.

Re:Not just Apple

[cpu6502]

(shrug). Google and Bing always come-up with different results.

What concerns me more is that Apple deliberately made Siri less-useful to the owner. What happens if you ask, "What is the best computer?" Or "What is the best MP3 player?" Or "What is the best tablet for reading books?" Now I have to wonder if Apple will censor those answers too. I buy a computer, or laptop, or phone, to help ME out with attaining knowledge not to serve the corporate master who built the computer/laptop/phone.

Re:Not just Apple

[Anthony Mouse]

What concerns me more is that Apple deliberately made Siri less-useful to the owner.

This is one of the situations where Apple really ought to be taking a page from Google. The problem in this case is that Siri is returning a nonsense answer as a result of Microsoft's astroturfing and marketing attempts to try to make Nokia not feel as lonely at the bottom of the market share charts.

The "right" way to fix that is to make your search algorithm less susceptible to slashvertizements and spam reviews. The stupid way is to change the single result someone pointed out to you and let the device continue telling people that snake oil cures cancer and plants crave Brawndo.

Re:Not just Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

laptop, or phone, to help ME out with attaining knowledge not to serve the corporate master who built the computer/laptop/phone.

Then you shouldn't be buying Apple. It's well known their platform is all about lockdown and tying you into their ecosystem.

If you want an open platform, buy an open platform. Apple is not that. Hasn't been for decades.

Re:Not just Apple

[jythie]

Pity I am out of mod points.

People seem obsessed with the idea that all products within a market should meet THEIR needs, and get rather pissy when something is both popular and not geared towards them. If Apple meets ones needs, by Apple. If Android does a better job, buy Android, rinse lather repeat.

Re:Not just Apple

[peragrin]

funny you can't run what ever you want on the most popular android devices either without talented hackers.

Re:Not just Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

Siri results are pretty basic as it is. The Yelp iPhone app is a much better tool for finding restaurants or such. Google and/or Wikipedia still rule for answering obscure questions

The only thing it's truly useful for is voice dialing or creating quick appointments without the hassle of opening the calendar or task app.

Siri is a toy, it's Apple's toy, and if Apple takes it and goes home, I wouldn't miss it.

Re:Not just Apple

[Kalriath]

So it's not possible that there are reviewers that actually like the phone? It's just Microsoft astroturfing? Yeah, right. God you people are so narcissistic.

Re:Not just Apple

[tqk]

Siri seems to do a good job of it. The article isn't about someone asking her ...

WTF is with you people all anthromorphizing a web search engine?!? Are you hoping to ask it out for a date someday?

Holy drank the koolaid, Batman!

Google "Best search engine"

[toygeek]

Number 1 answer: dogpile.com

Its funny, but its objective. They've avoided anti-trust by giving a genuine ranked answer. Apple, cowards that they are, just avoided the question altogether.

If I googled "best search engine" and google came back with "Wait, there's other search engines?" I would laugh, and then think them idiots.

Re:Google "Best search engine"

[atrain728]

Of course, dogpile.com is supported by google ads. Win-win!

At least they didn't ...

[MacTO]

At least Apple didn't replace the response with an endorsement for their own product, which is what I'd expect from any vendor (including Apple). Questions like this, after all, have a definite conflict of interest.

Siri = Voice of Apple Marketing

[QuietLagoon]

Apple has made a strategic mistake here, giving the Apple Marketing Department control over the validity and content of the results that Siri provides.

Re:Seems more approprate to Apple

[Patch86]

If I ask for smartphone reviews, I expect smartphone reviews. It does bill itself as your big internet helper. If I wanted jokes when I asked for smartphone reviews, I'd download an app called "smartass jokes".

It's one thing to have jokes in there for when people ask blatantly daft things, like "will you marry me Siri", or "find me a restaurant on Mars". But when you ask a common question with a simple answer, you expect to get an answer.

So Siri is now completely useless

[SilverJets]

Apple just tipped their hand. They will change what Siri responds with if they don't like the answer.

So now ALL answers Siri provides are in doubt. Was the answer what Siri actually came up with from search results or did Apple intervene?

Dialing out of service range?

[bhpratt]

I hate siri 1.0...so voice dialing or voice control of the music fails when out of service range.

How often do you find yourself needing to dial a number when you have no service? I can't see voice dialing helping much in this situation :-)

Of course, you can get the normal voice control back by turning off Siri in your iPhone's settings, but I admit that toggling this when you're in and out of service should probably be automatic.