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"Let that sink in for a moment: The selling point of this app is that Google will read your messages, for your convenience." If that's the author's objection,

"Let that sink in for a moment: The selling point of this app is that Google will read your messages, for your convenience." If that's the author's objection, it's like the author never heard of Gmail. https://developers.google.com/schemas/tutorials/google-now-cards https://developers.google.com/schemas/tutorials/google-now-c...

visarga 10y ago
Gmail? What about Google Search? It knows more about a man than his wife, doctor and lawyer combined. But Google convinced us to happily give up our privacy, for the amazing advantage (no sarcasm) of searching the internet. Maybe it was worth it, but Alo doesn't offer any ground breaking service.
- vthallam 10y ago
  The demo showed only some use cases which mostly look like first world problems, but i personally see a huge need for this. I mean there are millions of people who plan things over chat and Google showing search results for movies, restaurants, flight ticket prices etc in the chat which can be viewed by all the users is very huge IMO. Also, if they open up the platform for other bots like Google, basically we are seeing a FB messenger bot like platform. I will just open the incognito mode they are offering if and when needed.
  - zxcvcxz 10y ago
    Why not just install a keylogger on all google devices?
    - fixermark 10y ago
      Lack of useful semantic context to guess at the meaning of the keylogged strings making it more difficult for the data to be combined with the user's existing data to help them solve problems. ... but I know you were just being facetious. ;)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
duaneb 10y ago
It's a little different as gmail is useless without search. This is an extension to messaging that nobody was asking for. Furthermore, email was never secure to begin with. E2E encryption has finally been making its way to devices; this is a major setback for the effort.
- fixermark 10y ago
  Why is it a major setback of the effort?
  - duaneb 10y ago
    If you're giving every text message to a third party, it's not e2e encrypted anymore....
    - fixermark 10y ago
      Nobody's giving every message to a third party. Just every non-Incognito Allo message. ... unless you're assuming "It's from Google, therefore everybody will be using it next week" or something. And if that happens, maybe people find the ability to have a third party sift their conversation data and integrate it against their other data to solve problems they have to be more useful than anonymity?
- johnward 10y ago
  "It's a little different as gmail is useless without search." Are you suggesting the reason they read your email is for search? What about the ads they serve on the promotions tab? What about the fact that it can parse my travel plans and add it to my google calendar? There's a lot more than just search going on.
TimMeade 10y ago
Google voice? How do you think they tuned their voice recognition and their translations? Listening to all those free phone calls.
- dexterdog 10y ago
  In my experience they still have a crazy amount of tuning to do. The translation is useful maybe 1/4 of the time. It's is what I would call accurate maybe 1/20.
  - TimMeade 10y ago
    But like Allo, they were never hesitant to say that was the reason for having Google voice and making it free. They needed those millions of hours of voice so that they had the broad diverse base of voices and accents to work with. This is just Google's way of doing things and always have been. Always a little uproar and a week later everyone has forgotten. And two years from now Google can say "but we TOLD you so!" Honestly, as a developer I don't know if I agree with it or not. If I was in their shoes, it seems like the way to do it. They are honest in what they are doing, but I think its because they know people will forget sooner rather than later.
rvalue 10y ago
My greatest concern with Allo was it is bound to build bad habits in the newer generation who do not take a deeper thought about privacy. And it's spoiling them into doing all things the easy way. For e.g. one would wonder if a new message is even typed by the person sending it or its the "suggested" feelings of an AI. I also understand that even by using only Gmail, we too have allowed corporations into our lives but atleast it has not build habits in me of using technology for every single thing.

visarga 10y ago

Gmail? What about Google Search? It knows more about a man than his wife, doctor and lawyer combined. But Google convinced us to happily give up our privacy, for the amazing advantage (no sarcasm) of searching the internet. Maybe it was worth it, but Alo doesn't offer any ground breaking service.

vthallam 10y ago
The demo showed only some use cases which mostly look like first world problems, but i personally see a huge need for this. I mean there are millions of people who plan things over chat and Google showing search results for movies, restaurants, flight ticket prices etc in the chat which can be viewed by all the users is very huge IMO. Also, if they open up the platform for other bots like Google, basically we are seeing a FB messenger bot like platform. I will just open the incognito mode they are offering if and when needed.
- zxcvcxz 10y ago
  Why not just install a keylogger on all google devices?
  - fixermark 10y ago
    Lack of useful semantic context to guess at the meaning of the keylogged strings making it more difficult for the data to be combined with the user's existing data to help them solve problems. ... but I know you were just being facetious. ;)
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

duaneb 10y ago

It's a little different as gmail is useless without search. This is an extension to messaging that nobody was asking for. Furthermore, email was never secure to begin with. E2E encryption has finally been making its way to devices; this is a major setback for the effort.

fixermark 10y ago
Why is it a major setback of the effort?
- duaneb 10y ago
  If you're giving every text message to a third party, it's not e2e encrypted anymore....
  - fixermark 10y ago
    Nobody's giving every message to a third party. Just every non-Incognito Allo message. ... unless you're assuming "It's from Google, therefore everybody will be using it next week" or something. And if that happens, maybe people find the ability to have a third party sift their conversation data and integrate it against their other data to solve problems they have to be more useful than anonymity?
johnward 10y ago
"It's a little different as gmail is useless without search." Are you suggesting the reason they read your email is for search? What about the ads they serve on the promotions tab? What about the fact that it can parse my travel plans and add it to my google calendar? There's a lot more than just search going on.

TimMeade 10y ago

Google voice? How do you think they tuned their voice recognition and their translations? Listening to all those free phone calls.

dexterdog 10y ago
In my experience they still have a crazy amount of tuning to do. The translation is useful maybe 1/4 of the time. It's is what I would call accurate maybe 1/20.
- TimMeade 10y ago
  But like Allo, they were never hesitant to say that was the reason for having Google voice and making it free. They needed those millions of hours of voice so that they had the broad diverse base of voices and accents to work with. This is just Google's way of doing things and always have been. Always a little uproar and a week later everyone has forgotten. And two years from now Google can say "but we TOLD you so!" Honestly, as a developer I don't know if I agree with it or not. If I was in their shoes, it seems like the way to do it. They are honest in what they are doing, but I think its because they know people will forget sooner rather than later.

rvalue 10y ago

My greatest concern with Allo was it is bound to build bad habits in the newer generation who do not take a deeper thought about privacy. And it's spoiling them into doing all things the easy way. For e.g. one would wonder if a new message is even typed by the person sending it or its the "suggested" feelings of an AI. I also understand that even by using only Gmail, we too have allowed corporations into our lives but atleast it has not build habits in me of using technology for every single thing.