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> I don't want to download a parking meter app, I just want to pay for parking. I don't want to download LiveNation's app. I just want to order concert tickets

by knz 9y ago

> I don't want to download a parking meter app, I just want to pay for parking. I don't want to download LiveNation's app. I just want to order concert tickets. All of these use cases should be easily solved by a decent web UI running in a browser without the need for a native app?

remir 9y ago
Absolutely. Progressive web apps are great for this, but like I mentioned, chatbots and AI assistants are emerging. That doesn't mean the web is dead, but if more and more people are using chatbots and assistants like Alexa to do stuff, that could be problematic for Google as less people will see ads and download apps. I'm talking about Google's perspective here. I'm not saying this is where the entire industry should go.
- tmzt 9y ago
  Yep. It was interesting to see another company using 'Skills' to describe their AI addons. I see the same thing applying to mobile apps, essentially services that also describe a minimal UI but leave the communication, notification, and other components up to the underlying environment. Essentially a user agent that decides what I want to see, and then sorts through the proposals from the various skills and let's through only what it knows I will be interested in. Advertising is a concern, but it will take the same level of breakthrough that text-based ads did. It will be completely obvious only once it has been accomplished. The use cases mentioned above are both time and location sensitive making this "sorting" process easier for the agent. Parking meters make sense when you are parked in front of them, and can justify taking up a large portion of your screen, turning the display on if it's out of your pocket, propose an actual transaction, etc. Ticket sales might be notifying you when a desired event is coming up, such as a play or music act, and then offering to monitor the ticket prices or offer you the opportunity to buy through a loyalty program from one of your credit cards or phone carriers. The important thing is that skills can expose spoken, UI-based, chat-based, location and driving state dependent interfaces. Thinking of simply an application which runs on a screen, runs a service in the background or requires a complicated notification system which it primarily uses to capture as much of your attention as possible is quickly becoming outdated. Games will still be apps, but not much else.
  - remir 9y ago
    You explained it better than I did. "Skills" is really the key word, here. For example, a man could tell the AI assistant that he wants to send flowers to his wife at her office for her birthday. The florists in the area could simply connect their stores to Google's AI, so Fuchsia could then generate an interface with relevant selection of flowers. The man then taps what he wants, confirm, and the system handles payment and shipping info. Done. The interface closes automatically and he can go on with his day. No app to download, no credit card to enter, no new account to create.

by knz 9y ago

remir 9y ago

Absolutely. Progressive web apps are great for this, but like I mentioned, chatbots and AI assistants are emerging. That doesn't mean the web is dead, but if more and more people are using chatbots and assistants like Alexa to do stuff, that could be problematic for Google as less people will see ads and download apps. I'm talking about Google's perspective here. I'm not saying this is where the entire industry should go.

tmzt 9y ago
Yep. It was interesting to see another company using 'Skills' to describe their AI addons. I see the same thing applying to mobile apps, essentially services that also describe a minimal UI but leave the communication, notification, and other components up to the underlying environment. Essentially a user agent that decides what I want to see, and then sorts through the proposals from the various skills and let's through only what it knows I will be interested in. Advertising is a concern, but it will take the same level of breakthrough that text-based ads did. It will be completely obvious only once it has been accomplished. The use cases mentioned above are both time and location sensitive making this "sorting" process easier for the agent. Parking meters make sense when you are parked in front of them, and can justify taking up a large portion of your screen, turning the display on if it's out of your pocket, propose an actual transaction, etc. Ticket sales might be notifying you when a desired event is coming up, such as a play or music act, and then offering to monitor the ticket prices or offer you the opportunity to buy through a loyalty program from one of your credit cards or phone carriers. The important thing is that skills can expose spoken, UI-based, chat-based, location and driving state dependent interfaces. Thinking of simply an application which runs on a screen, runs a service in the background or requires a complicated notification system which it primarily uses to capture as much of your attention as possible is quickly becoming outdated. Games will still be apps, but not much else.
- remir 9y ago
  You explained it better than I did. "Skills" is really the key word, here. For example, a man could tell the AI assistant that he wants to send flowers to his wife at her office for her birthday. The florists in the area could simply connect their stores to Google's AI, so Fuchsia could then generate an interface with relevant selection of flowers. The man then taps what he wants, confirm, and the system handles payment and shipping info. Done. The interface closes automatically and he can go on with his day. No app to download, no credit card to enter, no new account to create.