5 ms·

Because it was sold as something better. When siri first came out it was billed as something revolutionary and that it would continuously improve as more people

Because it was sold as something better. When siri first came out it was billed as something revolutionary and that it would continuously improve as more people used it. Did that even happen? Outside of the "happy path" sort of questions, I find it rather disappointing with pre-canned responses, or just showing me search results most of the time. Now I really only use it for setting reminders or alarms.

dahart 9y ago
Totally. Me too, my use of Google Voice and Siri and Alexa has declined because I don't usually get what I want the first time. Reminders and alarms it always gets right, it's faster to set a reminder by voice than by typing. But I think you and I are illustrating how we expect more from voice search than text search. My use of text search hasn't declined like my use of voice search, and text search is just as fundamentally bad as voice search. I think it's because I can see & sift many results, and because I can easily iterate on my query when it's not quite right. Voice search can't do either easily. Perhaps Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft all initially thought that the revolutionary part was being able to speak a query and have the query match what you said, and that the search part was already good enough.
- brians 9y ago
  Try a reminder including the word "play". The choice to play an album or open an app dominates, so it tells you it doesn't have an app with some nonsense name. List decoding was invented by 1955. This is a set of hard problems, but very well studied ones.
  - comex 9y ago
    Which assistant? It works for me with Siri: http://imgur.com/a/GiuMP http://imgur.com/a/GiuMP
    - bronson 9y ago
      Works with Google too, even capitalizing the movie correctly. "Set an appointment to play Lost Boys tomorrow." "What time?"
- ghaff 9y ago
  >I think it's because I can see & sift many results, and because I can easily iterate on my query Absolutely. In fact sometimes I'm searching for something, whether in a search engine, at an ecommerce site, or whatever and I'm not getting what I want immediately. If I'm on a phone or tablet, I'll often grab a nearby laptop because it's just faster and easier to do a lot of typing and clicking on. (Less true with more recent tablets but my basic point is that there's sometimes a lot of fast iteration when I'm trying to find the answer to something non-obvious.)
- ncallaway 9y ago
  > But I think you and I are illustrating how we expect more from voice search than text search I think @seiferteric's point was that the expectation may not be there because it is a voice search. That expectation is there because that's how it was marketed. If the marketing for these things was: "Ask a question, and get search results by voice" I don't think I'd have the expectation that it find and deliver the correct answer to me. But the marketing for all of these devices is: "It's a personal assistant! Ask it a question and you'll get an answer!" I'm personally not convinced that the high expectations are because it's a voice interaction, but rather that the technology simply can't live up to the marketing pitch.
  - bluGill 9y ago
    I think part of it is desire. Many people would love to have an assistant like that. There is a vague memory of the days of personal secretaries, a girl (those were sexist days) who could looks things up for you so that you can spend your efforts are other tasks. There are a lot of times when everybody could use help, but they don't have it.

dahart 9y ago

Totally. Me too, my use of Google Voice and Siri and Alexa has declined because I don't usually get what I want the first time. Reminders and alarms it always gets right, it's faster to set a reminder by voice than by typing. But I think you and I are illustrating how we expect more from voice search than text search. My use of text search hasn't declined like my use of voice search, and text search is just as fundamentally bad as voice search. I think it's because I can see & sift many results, and because I can easily iterate on my query when it's not quite right. Voice search can't do either easily. Perhaps Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft all initially thought that the revolutionary part was being able to speak a query and have the query match what you said, and that the search part was already good enough.

brians 9y ago
Try a reminder including the word "play". The choice to play an album or open an app dominates, so it tells you it doesn't have an app with some nonsense name. List decoding was invented by 1955. This is a set of hard problems, but very well studied ones.
- comex 9y ago
  Which assistant? It works for me with Siri: http://imgur.com/a/GiuMP http://imgur.com/a/GiuMP
  - bronson 9y ago
    Works with Google too, even capitalizing the movie correctly. "Set an appointment to play Lost Boys tomorrow." "What time?"
ghaff 9y ago
>I think it's because I can see & sift many results, and because I can easily iterate on my query Absolutely. In fact sometimes I'm searching for something, whether in a search engine, at an ecommerce site, or whatever and I'm not getting what I want immediately. If I'm on a phone or tablet, I'll often grab a nearby laptop because it's just faster and easier to do a lot of typing and clicking on. (Less true with more recent tablets but my basic point is that there's sometimes a lot of fast iteration when I'm trying to find the answer to something non-obvious.)
ncallaway 9y ago
> But I think you and I are illustrating how we expect more from voice search than text search I think @seiferteric's point was that the expectation may not be there because it is a voice search. That expectation is there because that's how it was marketed. If the marketing for these things was: "Ask a question, and get search results by voice" I don't think I'd have the expectation that it find and deliver the correct answer to me. But the marketing for all of these devices is: "It's a personal assistant! Ask it a question and you'll get an answer!" I'm personally not convinced that the high expectations are because it's a voice interaction, but rather that the technology simply can't live up to the marketing pitch.
- bluGill 9y ago
  I think part of it is desire. Many people would love to have an assistant like that. There is a vague memory of the days of personal secretaries, a girl (those were sexist days) who could looks things up for you so that you can spend your efforts are other tasks. There are a lot of times when everybody could use help, but they don't have it.