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Google Unveils New Search Features, Including iOS Voice Search
First time accepted submitter sohmc writes "Some time ago, Google admitted that the biggest threat was not other search engines but services like Siri. However, Google just bridged that gap with Google Voice Search, already available in Jelly Bean, but also available via downloadable app. Google also submitted this app to the iOS App Store and is currently waiting approval. However, Slashdotters are no doubt recalling to mind the 'Google Voice' fiasco, in which Apple refused to allow it to appear, saying that it replaces a native function. It wasn't until Apple was brought before Congress to answer questions on how it approves or rejects apps that Google Voice was brought in."
What is this made-up crap about Congress in the summary? Do the editors bother reviewing submissions? (Of course not, this is Slashdot!)
Voice search has been on Android for about three years now.
Just because IOS users are finally getting it does not make it news.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Google voice search is just an alternative entry method for the standard search. It is hardly a strategic counter to the more AI-driven approach (ok, quasi-AI) that Siri represents. And it does little to address either the vertical search gap presented by Yelp, or the "diagonal" functionality gap that Siri addresses by smoothly integrating with your other iOS apps like text message, alarm or calendar.
Apple ought to have been prosecuted for its anti-competitive practices a long time ago. I have no idea why this hasn't happened.
For God's sake, Microsoft is forced to include a nag screen advertising other browsers (including the ones virtually nobody uses) while Apple gets a free pass to prevent others browsers from even functioning properly on iOS, censors its competitors and dissidents in its app store, and makes use of vendor lock-in wherever it can.
Why the double standard?
Coincidentally (perhaps), "Siri" was the name of a gay starship captain in "The forever War".
You don't have to be a monopoly to be prosecuted. Microsoft certainly wasn't a monopoly on the desktop when it was prosecuted. Or Standard Oil when it was prosecuted. You only have to have a large enough share of a certain market that your presence is "anti-competitive" and blocks other companies from succeeding. Apple certainly fits that description in the cellphone & tablet markets.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
The monopoly "requirement" only applies to Section 2 violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Section 1 "anti-competitive" violations have no such requirement.
Regardless of what Google may have said about its "biggest threat", search engines are the backbone of many other interesting services anyway. Nowadays it's how we get everywhere. Most of the time I barely bother with bookmarks: if I want to find a locksmith in West Fooville, I might google "locksmith in west fooville kentucky" or I might speak it into a phone, but it's the search engine that's doing the heavy lifting. I suspect that the targeted ads in gmail are built on top of their search engine in some fashion, and not just a natural language understanding engine (anybody out there know for certain?).
By the way, if you want a Google [and Amazon] insider's perspective on services and platforms, you must check out Steve Yegge's classic rant on the topic: http://steverant.pen.io/
Koans and fables for the software engineer
Troll? No, the word you're looking for is 'informative'. It's a classic work of science fiction, and I could definitely see naming a product after a character in it, especially if it's an 'in joke'.
The court declared MS to be a monopoly so who should've believe? You or the court?
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
A monopoly doesn't need to control 100% of the market. It just needs to have monopoly power by controlling a large chunk of the market and being able to direct the market at will.
I really don't like these new voice features. Having to hear the incessant blathering from some cell phone users is bad enough - now I have to hear them talking at their phones when they're not on a call?
#DeleteChrome
And Apple hasn't been nailed for it, nor is anyone but the Android fan boys even bringing it up. So who's the moron?
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
microsoft controlled 90% of the operating system market when the antitrust suit was filed in 1998
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ofnote/9-16mrktshare.mspx
Countries define what percentage qualifies as a monopoly. In the UK, a company is defined as having monopoly power when it passes 25% market share.
http://economicsonline.co.uk/Market_failures/Monopoly_power.html
In the US, 100% has never been required to qualify as a monopoly. Standard Oil controlled 91% of production, and 85% of US sales four years before the antitrust suit was filed.
Section 2 of the sherman antitrust act:
Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony
And to be prosecuted under that section, two things have to be proven:
(1) the possession of monopoly power in the relevant market and
(2) the willful acquisition or maintenance of that power as distinguished from growth or development as a consequence of a superior product, business acumen, or historic accident.
#2 is called the rule of reason - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_reason
Siri is basically Wolfram Alpha, so yes.
This function seems to be working just fine and dandy. You can make an argument about features, but in reality as Google and Apple release updates each is getting more and more sophisticated. In this iOS 6 beta on my iPad Apple has added a ton of useful Siri functions, and it's never had any real problems understanding me. But to each their own.
Accurate dictation:
http://imgur.com/RH3tD
New Siri features in iOS 6:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-I69vumnG0
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
While it seems like the early versions of the iOS App may limit voice input to search, it makes sense that Google's angling to compete with Siri's personal assistant functionality by integrating with Google Calendar, Gmail, etc. Using the Google's iOS Voice App to "book an appointment" on an iPhone configured with Google's ActiveSync/Exchange Gmail and Calendar connector could appear to behave identically to Siri.
Siri would presumably trigger a calendar event creation directly on the phone after receiving data from Apple's server, while Google's Voice App could transmit the appointment creation command to Google's server and add the appointment to the user's Google Calendar. The appointment would immediately be fetched by the iPhone's Calendar App, so the two actions would appear the same to the user.
Not always. This one surprised me...
A few months back, I biked in to work. I was bit a concerned about riding home in the dark and wanted to see the sunset time. On a lark, I asked Siri, "Siri, what time is sunset?" Siri thought for a moment and came back and said, "Sunset is at 7:34PM."
Wow! I was impressed. Siri also showed me the weather for the rest of the week!
So I figured I'd try something else. "Siri, what time was sunrise?" Siri thought for a moment and came back and said, "I'm sorry, I can't tell you the weather from the past."
Huh? I'm asking about sunrise and sunset. Not weather.
I noticed that this has since been fixed--Siri will tell me sunrise and sunset times for anywhere in the country. But I can't say, "Siri, what time will the sun rise in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 23rd, 2012?" because Siri is getting sunrise and sunset information from the same place it gets weather information (which seems to be why it shows a weather forecast along side). But if I pose the same question to Wolfram-Alpha, it replies correctly.
Can Google invent a text search feature? You know, where you type words into a text box and Google returns a list of pages that contain those words? That would be cool. Can Google work on that next?
I've tried Voice Search on Android. The results usually don't even vaguely resemble what I asked for.
It seems Google Voice Search in Jelly Bean works a little better. Asking for sunset gives me the correct answer. Asking for sunrise this morning gives me sunrise for tomorrow. Asking for sunrise or sunset in Cleveland, Ohio works fine, but asking about a specific date brings up a Google search result which does have links to accurate information.
well, i think you can just tell siri to go to WA for that too..
try this:
"ask wolfram alpha what flights are currently overhead"
Sure. I can tell Siri to search the web as well and it will use Google/Bing/Yahoo/whatever.
The argument you hear is that Siri is so great because it goes to the appropriate engine for this information. So if you say, "Is Norm's a good place to eat?" Siri will check Yelp and say, "No." I don't have to tell Siri what I'm looking for--Siri is so smart it can figure it out for itself and give me back the answer.
If I have to tell Siri where to look, it's kind of a fail.
Especially given that they apparently own exclusive rights to have devices with rounded corners.
So you didnt read the part in the summary where it said "already available in Jelly Bean, but also available via downloadable app" Anyway why would google want to provide an incentive to upgrade to a new phone? They don't even make phones and they give the OS away for free. It is actually in their best interest to have this new function available as widely as possible since they make their money through advertising.
Google: What will it take to get this app in the app store?
... some time later ...
Apple: It would take an act of Congress.
Apple: It was a figure of speech!
I wonder if Google Voice Search will work on the iPhone 4 or the iPad 1/2? They aren't powerful enough to run the Siri web service /sarcasm :P
I'd be satisfied with a Google "improvement" that allowed it to search on what you typed in without having to use quotation marks. It would also be nice if it didn't ask whether you meant Hancock when you typed in Hanock.
Having a monopoly is perfectly legal. In some cases, it's a very practical move (natural monopolies, when properly regulated), in others, it just falls out because of the nature of the market (some software sold is so specialized, only one company really makes it because the market consists of 10-odd entities, say).
That's perfectly allowable by all the laws.
What's not allowable is when you use that monopoly to basically barge your way into another market (e.g. Microsoft Windows barging into the browser world by including IE).
Apple nearly fell into anti-trust with the iPod and iTunes Store - because they practically used the iPod and iTunes to lock people in. It would be a very fine line (because iPod+iTunes complemented each other, and iPod grew in dominance due to timing alongside iTunes first-mover advantage). The iPhone? Not so much - Android is a bigger seller and has more marketshrae. The iPad? Perhaps, though it's marketshare is dropping (it's down to sub-70%), and was really first-mover advantage compounded by well, crappy competitors with rushed products. Though, it's unclear where Apple is muscling in.
Heck, Google has to be careful - they own practically all the advertising networks out there (making them both the supplier of "good ads" like AdSense, and the purveyor of annoying ones like popunders courtesy DoubleClick, a Google-owned subsidiary).
How's that overblown emotional investment in Apple working out for ya?
I have the "downloadable app" (assuming it is just called "Google Voice Search"). It is a basic front end that gives you the ability to do some voice commands - IF your device is set to US English (I'm in Australia but I have my phone set to US English so I have access to these extra commands).
Some of the commands you can do are:
"set alarm for 8.30pm" ...but it doesn't - as far as I can see - equal the advanced functionality that has been made available in Jelly Bean, in which you can do more Siri-like actions like say "what is the weather in San Francisco?" and have it read you back an answer.
"note to self"
"send email to"
"navigate to"
I agree re: the point about upgrading, but I can't think of any other justification for why this application isn't available on pre-4.1 phones. I am conscious that Google are struggling from more of an image problem - especially amongst developers - because of the Android fragmentation issue and moving people onto more advanced phones (especially their own hardware, like the Nexus series) will help drag that sub-1% install base on the latest version or whatever it is into a more reasonable figure that is competitive with Apple.