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Recommendations, algorithmic timelines and so on are indeed a bit of a nuisance. Similarly, Google Now is annoying me a lot at the moment but I can't use my wa

Recommendations, algorithmic timelines and so on are indeed a bit of a nuisance. Similarly, Google Now is annoying me a lot at the moment but I can't use my watch fully without turning it on.

goldenkey 10y ago
Google Now kept creepily insisting I was on my way home and kept calculating directions day after day..Even after disabling this directions to home feature, it still killed my phones battery life, so as omnitious as everyone likes to say Google is, they still had to have my phone do the ML cycles. Bah! Keep it all on your server Google! protesters yell 'Take it off your servers Google!' heh.. :-)
- umanwizard 10y ago
  How do you know the battery drain was caused by CPU usage, as opposed to something like network?
  - goldenkey 10y ago
    I had checked the statistics on the Play Framework service that it ran under. There was abnormally high CPU usage, high battery usage, and it was running all the time.
    - rspeer 10y ago
      Lots of apps use the Play Framework, not just Google Now.
      - goldenkey 10y ago
        I am aware. But consider that I literally disabled/enabled it with intent to discover if it was the problem. It was. Google Now is a huge drain. Googling it turns up thousands of other similar experiences unfortunately. [1] [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22google+now%22+cards+causing+huge+battery+cpu+drain https://www.google.com/search?q=%22google+now%22+cards+causi...
duaneb 10y ago
I find Google Now to be far more useful than e.g. Facebook "recommendations", which are basically ads.
- IanCal 10y ago
  Same, but google now for me is basically a mash of: 1. The weather 2. Stocks that have the same acronyms as things I've searched for 3. Flight information for any flight with the same code as mine 4. A recommendation of a film I might like to see because I searched for actors in them (which might be good except the reason I was looking up those actors was that I had just watched that film) 5. Sports scores for teams I don't follow 6. Possibly updates to sites I visit regularly (equivalent to a highly unreliable RSS client)
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    > 6. Possibly updates to sites I visit regularly (equivalent to a highly unreliable RSS client) This is what annoys me the most in Google Now. It's a damn black box. I'm happy that they provide "updates to sites I visit regularly", but even more than those updates I'd like to see the list of those sites. Without that, and any kind of information about how reliable this reporting is, I have no way of trusting I won't miss an "important update". I just don't know, and Google Now does nothing to reassure me.
    - Programmatic 10y ago
      I may be assuming ill intent where there is none, but I feel like that's part of the plan of the entities (Google, FaceBook) that automate recommendations: get you to discard that nagging feeling like you're missing something of actual importance, and just get your info from the feed. If I were nefarious and had their real estate, I would certainly like to not be transparent so that I could manipulate things without people being able to tell or complain.
    - bestnameever 10y ago
      I don't really rely on them to show me important updates. I see the stories they provide me with as more of a friendly suggestion that they've found something I might like or might of missed. I don't get them very often and I really like the spontaneity of them appearing when I'm not normally looking for them. The only time they annoyed me was when picking up a false article about Breaking bad being renewed. I shared the headline with several people before realizing it was a fake article. http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-bad-season-6-hoax-2015-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-bad-season-6-hoax-20...

Recommendations, algorithmic timelines and so on are indeed a bit of a nuisance. Similarly, Google Now is annoying me a lot at the moment but I can't use my watch fully without turning it on.

goldenkey 10y ago

Google Now kept creepily insisting I was on my way home and kept calculating directions day after day..Even after disabling this directions to home feature, it still killed my phones battery life, so as omnitious as everyone likes to say Google is, they still had to have my phone do the ML cycles. Bah! Keep it all on your server Google! protesters yell 'Take it off your servers Google!' heh.. :-)

umanwizard 10y ago
How do you know the battery drain was caused by CPU usage, as opposed to something like network?
- goldenkey 10y ago
  I had checked the statistics on the Play Framework service that it ran under. There was abnormally high CPU usage, high battery usage, and it was running all the time.
  - rspeer 10y ago
    Lots of apps use the Play Framework, not just Google Now.
    - goldenkey 10y ago
      I am aware. But consider that I literally disabled/enabled it with intent to discover if it was the problem. It was. Google Now is a huge drain. Googling it turns up thousands of other similar experiences unfortunately. [1] [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22google+now%22+cards+causing+huge+battery+cpu+drain https://www.google.com/search?q=%22google+now%22+cards+causi...

duaneb 10y ago

I find Google Now to be far more useful than e.g. Facebook "recommendations", which are basically ads.

IanCal 10y ago
Same, but google now for me is basically a mash of: 1. The weather 2. Stocks that have the same acronyms as things I've searched for 3. Flight information for any flight with the same code as mine 4. A recommendation of a film I might like to see because I searched for actors in them (which might be good except the reason I was looking up those actors was that I had just watched that film) 5. Sports scores for teams I don't follow 6. Possibly updates to sites I visit regularly (equivalent to a highly unreliable RSS client)
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  > 6. Possibly updates to sites I visit regularly (equivalent to a highly unreliable RSS client) This is what annoys me the most in Google Now. It's a damn black box. I'm happy that they provide "updates to sites I visit regularly", but even more than those updates I'd like to see the list of those sites. Without that, and any kind of information about how reliable this reporting is, I have no way of trusting I won't miss an "important update". I just don't know, and Google Now does nothing to reassure me.
  - Programmatic 10y ago
    I may be assuming ill intent where there is none, but I feel like that's part of the plan of the entities (Google, FaceBook) that automate recommendations: get you to discard that nagging feeling like you're missing something of actual importance, and just get your info from the feed. If I were nefarious and had their real estate, I would certainly like to not be transparent so that I could manipulate things without people being able to tell or complain.
  - bestnameever 10y ago
    I don't really rely on them to show me important updates. I see the stories they provide me with as more of a friendly suggestion that they've found something I might like or might of missed. I don't get them very often and I really like the spontaneity of them appearing when I'm not normally looking for them. The only time they annoyed me was when picking up a false article about Breaking bad being renewed. I shared the headline with several people before realizing it was a fake article. http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-bad-season-6-hoax-2015-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-bad-season-6-hoax-20...