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After so many years Siri still doesn’t do “take me to the nearest McDonald’s” like Google Assistant can. And whenever Siri isn’t “confident” it just launches Sa

After so many years Siri still doesn’t do “take me to the nearest McDonald’s” like Google Assistant can. And whenever Siri isn’t “confident” it just launches Safari, but it’s often not even the best starting point, and Siri sometimes gives up silently without feedback. Also for a bit of fun, ask Siri for the population of Buffalo NY. I noticed because Siri also tells you that Buffalo is big, and then goes on to say...

pen2l 8y ago
The worst part for me is it opens it in Safari and not Chrome. (As well that it opens directions with not-Google Maps)
- giobox 8y ago
  Isn’t it still the case that “third party” browsers on iOS are just wrappers around Safari/WebKit anyway? For the longest time Chrome on iOS was just using WebKit/safari’s UIWebView then later WKWebView for rendering webpages, much like many other iOS apps that display web content. For various reasons the App Store rules have always banned third party browser rendering engines, I haven’t heard any change in this policy recently? The only real advantage of Chrome on iOS was ancillary features like Google account bookmark/history sync etc if you are all in on Chrome elsewhere, which isn’t all that useful in the context of a link provided by Siri, for me at any rate. The feature that lets apps using WKWebView access your password/auto fill data only works with Safari on iOS as well, which is all the reason I need not to bother with the WebKit-wrapper rivals anyway. The maps issue is significantly more annoying to me.
scarface74 8y ago
I just tried “take me to the nearest McDonalds” and it replied “which local business, tap the one you want” with a list from nearest to farthest and when I click on it, it gives me directions to the one I choose. As far as the second question - yeah that one was weird. It said that the population was 69 but the text summary that it displayed was 269,000. It’s the only city that displayed that bug.
- threatofrain 8y ago
  Did you see how Google Assistant handles the nearest McDonald’s request? Google doesn’t ask you which McDonald’s is the closest one, tap the one you want.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    But that’s more of an interface choice than a technical limitation. Siri both understood the question and had the ability to navigate to it. In my case, there were 9 McDonalds within a 10 mile radius. In cases where there was only one location nearby, it took me right to it.
    - ryandrake 8y ago
      If you said “take me to” an not “show me a list” then it actually did the wrong thing by showing you a list. I suppose “not working” is technically an interface choice, though.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - threatofrain 8y ago
      I think you give Siri too much of the benefit of the doubt when you say that Siri understands your request. You may be correct, but maybe Siri just looks for a location like "McDonalds" and most of the time just shows you a list? It's easier when you're ignoring the rest of the sentence as if it has no relevance to improving your response. It's very hard for us to discuss Siri's internal state; by contrast it's easier to discuss Google's observable performance, which is to semantically differentiate between these two requests. You can just ask Google, "Nearby McDonalds" and you'll get a list. "Go to the nearest McDonalds" and you get navigation.
      - scarface74 8y ago
        Take me to the nearest McDonalds - gives me a list. “McDonalds” - gives me a list. “Take me to the closest McDonalds” - brings up maps and starts navigating to the closest McDonalds. After further experimentation. Siri doesn’t understand Nearest but does understand “closest” to mean that I don’t want a list.
bosie 8y ago
"what is the population of buffalo, new york" (that's what i told siri) shows me London?
mcphage 8y ago
> Also for a bit of fun, ask Siri for the population of Buffalo NY. Nice
- ryanwaggoner 8y ago
  Someone at Apple may be reading this thread, because it returned the answer normally for me.
  - mcphage 8y ago
    Yeah, they must have—this afternoon it told me the population of Buffalo, New York was 69. I’ve got a window, I was pretty sure that’s not correct.

pen2l 8y ago

The worst part for me is it opens it in Safari and not Chrome. (As well that it opens directions with not-Google Maps)

giobox 8y ago
Isn’t it still the case that “third party” browsers on iOS are just wrappers around Safari/WebKit anyway? For the longest time Chrome on iOS was just using WebKit/safari’s UIWebView then later WKWebView for rendering webpages, much like many other iOS apps that display web content. For various reasons the App Store rules have always banned third party browser rendering engines, I haven’t heard any change in this policy recently? The only real advantage of Chrome on iOS was ancillary features like Google account bookmark/history sync etc if you are all in on Chrome elsewhere, which isn’t all that useful in the context of a link provided by Siri, for me at any rate. The feature that lets apps using WKWebView access your password/auto fill data only works with Safari on iOS as well, which is all the reason I need not to bother with the WebKit-wrapper rivals anyway. The maps issue is significantly more annoying to me.

scarface74 8y ago

I just tried “take me to the nearest McDonalds” and it replied “which local business, tap the one you want” with a list from nearest to farthest and when I click on it, it gives me directions to the one I choose. As far as the second question - yeah that one was weird. It said that the population was 69 but the text summary that it displayed was 269,000. It’s the only city that displayed that bug.

threatofrain 8y ago
Did you see how Google Assistant handles the nearest McDonald’s request? Google doesn’t ask you which McDonald’s is the closest one, tap the one you want.
- scarface74 8y ago
  But that’s more of an interface choice than a technical limitation. Siri both understood the question and had the ability to navigate to it. In my case, there were 9 McDonalds within a 10 mile radius. In cases where there was only one location nearby, it took me right to it.
  - ryandrake 8y ago
    If you said “take me to” an not “show me a list” then it actually did the wrong thing by showing you a list. I suppose “not working” is technically an interface choice, though.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - threatofrain 8y ago
    I think you give Siri too much of the benefit of the doubt when you say that Siri understands your request. You may be correct, but maybe Siri just looks for a location like "McDonalds" and most of the time just shows you a list? It's easier when you're ignoring the rest of the sentence as if it has no relevance to improving your response. It's very hard for us to discuss Siri's internal state; by contrast it's easier to discuss Google's observable performance, which is to semantically differentiate between these two requests. You can just ask Google, "Nearby McDonalds" and you'll get a list. "Go to the nearest McDonalds" and you get navigation.
    - scarface74 8y ago
      Take me to the nearest McDonalds - gives me a list. “McDonalds” - gives me a list. “Take me to the closest McDonalds” - brings up maps and starts navigating to the closest McDonalds. After further experimentation. Siri doesn’t understand Nearest but does understand “closest” to mean that I don’t want a list.

bosie 8y ago

"what is the population of buffalo, new york" (that's what i told siri) shows me London?

mcphage 8y ago

> Also for a bit of fun, ask Siri for the population of Buffalo NY. Nice

ryanwaggoner 8y ago
Someone at Apple may be reading this thread, because it returned the answer normally for me.
- mcphage 8y ago
  Yeah, they must have—this afternoon it told me the population of Buffalo, New York was 69. I’ve got a window, I was pretty sure that’s not correct.