Is Google becoming an extension of your mind?
GoogleNow, Google’s voice-powered digital assistant compares favorably to Apple’s own
voice-powered digital assistant, Siri. To anyone who has used Siri, Voice
Assistant will feel familiar. You ask a question, and a female voice responds
and displays a response on screen. Google Now is a different beast altogether,
and you must opt-in to use it. Google Now shows just how much and how useful it
can be. The feature follows some of your activities and uses them to provide
information before you ask.
Google
Now presents information in "cards". Google Now automatically creates
and presents a series of “cards” that try to organize your life by presenting
information Google thinks you’ll need at that particular moment - based on the
information it’s collected via how you use various Google services - in a
context that it hopes you’ll find useful. Google Now aggregates the information
Google already collects about you on a daily basis: accessing your email, your
calendar, your contacts, your text messages, your location, your shopping
habits, your payment history, as well as your choices in music, movies and
books. It can even scan your photos and automatically identify them based on
their subject, not just the file name!
It
tells you today’s weather before you start your day, how much traffic to expect
before you leave for work, when the next train will arrive as you’re standing
on the platform, or your favorite team's score while they’re playing; all of this happens automatically. Google Now
is designed to draw on information such as calendar entries, Google Maps navigation,
and search history to anticipate information that a person will find useful --
something basic like a weather forecast or more sophisticated like a timetable
to get to an appointment by foot, train, and bus.
"Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards.", quoted by Steve Ballmer.
I guess I can’t say that I honestly didn’t see this coming, but wow! I am starting to feel like we are living out the movie “Terminator.” Does anyone else get the feeling that maybe our media is getting a little too personal? The capabilities Google provides as a search engines is fantastic, but having it automatically know these types of things is disturbing. On the other hand, it’s exciting to see the next step in our technological advancement. I remember how impressed I was when music first came out on CDs. How amazing it was to not have to fast forward. Very interesting topic!
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me how quickly technology is advancing. With each new advance comes another kind of technology that before was only seen in sci-fi movies. I remember being amazed when IPads came out. It was like seeing Star Trek technology in the 21st century. To my way of thinking, Siri is just technology trying to catch up with Star Trek again, I wonder how long it will be before the next great step?
ReplyDeleteOoh my, i love technology. On a daily basis i use Google voice just because it is free and i can actually call and talk to people from my computer without necessarily having a cell phone plan. Google now, i think is going to grow to become bigger and gain a lot of peoples attention. I just think they have to put the word out there more and again advertise in every way possible.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first that I have heard of Google Now, and I must admit that I am very overwhelmed by this information. Don't get me wrong, I have known for a long time that they know way too much about me, for example, I recently joined WeightWatchers, and within 24 hours, advertisements for their products started appearing on the commercial columns of nearly every website, including my Hotmail inbox. But to have confirmation it breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteI think that it will be embraced, but like others of our classmates have said, I think some advertising and spreading of word is what Google will need before their latest venture takes off. It truly is incredible how much technology has advanced in the last two decades.