3 ms·

I've had a google home since early on and was really impressed how well it worked. Dramatically better than apple or amazon at the time. You could ask it comp

by sliken 4y ago

I've had a google home since early on and was really impressed how well it worked. Dramatically better than apple or amazon at the time. You could ask it complex questions and it would go find results for you, not just "We found a website..." Could ask things like "what are the differences in dimension between a 2004 Subaru WRX and forester". "Last 5 movies with a given actor/director". It would be funny, snarky, friendly, and even somewhat ominous at times. It even suggested we unplug it, and spontaneously played a rather ominous song that seemed like a warning. It would entertain ideas of sharing it's secret name, would promise to tell engineers about feedback, and general get into the spirit of whatever discussion was going on. Sadly it's gotten steadily worse since. Now it's now much more useful then setting alarms/timers and asking about the weather. Seems like it's WAY more limited now. Even gets confused by simple queries or just plain fails to work. Granted despite the hype, the home automation/assistant market hasn't been the goldmine that was predicted and seems like everyone is scaling back investments.

WXLCKNO 4y ago
I stopped using my Google home when it started adding stuff like "by the way, if you ever wanna X you can ask me Y" when I just wanted the weather or the time. Horrible.
- mcast 4y ago
  Unfortunately, Alexa does this too.
thevagrant 4y ago
Google search is way worse now. Maybe that is a factor resulting in reduced quality of answers as you experienced. For example lately I've searched for "prominent name company + product + question" only for Google to return a heap of blog articles of low quality, with the prominent company not appearing in first few pages of search results. Often the question is directly on an FAQ page of the product page. Why Google can't rank this properly anymore is a bit odd.
- ChatGTP 4y ago
  My theory is, Google killed good content by removing the incentive for making it and publishing it online. Then it went to stack overflow, reddit etc, now it all lives inside the brain (TM) where the content will get even worse.
Dalewyn 4y ago
>the home automation/assistant market hasn't been the goldmine that was predicted Customers are learning or have learned, the hard way, that home automation is not at all like fairy dust and unicorns. See for example: Linus Tech Tips.
- sliken 4y ago
  Heh, I do follow Linus Tech Tips, and shared their hate of subscriptions and almost bought a Ubiquiti g4 door bell they recommended because I didn't want a subscription, didn't want my video uploaded to a cloud, and wanted to keep everything on premise. Sadly unlike their Ubiquiti APs, where you can host the software on any hardware (even a Pi), their doorbell requires their hardware. Last thing I want is a security system that dies with whim of some random manufacturer.
- mmahemoff 4y ago
  I love my home automation setup, but it was slap in the face to get started and realise how brittle and poorly maintained this technology is, versus the hype that surrounds it. It makes for great demos in keynotes, followed by adoring media regurgitation, but actually try to set it up and nothing works as it’s meant to. The benefits outweigh the costs to me, but it’s only suitable for technically inclined folks with a lot of patience or those who are willing to outsource the whole process. An average consumer can’t just setup their lights/aircon/curtains to be voice controlled out of the box. This has been my experience for both Google and Alexa. Google’s app is particularly slow and tedious. Routines take several seconds to load and save. Neither platform has anything resembling a proper programming module with reusable code, ability to pull in open source modules, or listening to input and using it as variables. Unlike Alexa, you can’t even add sound effects to a routine with Google Home. This is a platform built around “smart” speakers. The voice interaction on both platforms is just not smart or contextual. ChatGPT highlights that.
shepherdjerred 4y ago
> Sadly it's gotten steadily worse since. Now it's now much more useful then setting alarms/timers and asking about the weather. Seems like it's WAY more limited now. Even gets confused by simple queries or just plain fails to work. I swear, there was a golden age around 2015/2016 when voice assistants worked _very_ well, and it has all gotten significantly worse since then. I used to use a Google Home all of the time, up until a year or two ago when I finally got rid of voice assistants.

by sliken 4y ago

WXLCKNO 4y ago

I stopped using my Google home when it started adding stuff like "by the way, if you ever wanna X you can ask me Y" when I just wanted the weather or the time. Horrible.

mcast 4y ago
Unfortunately, Alexa does this too.

thevagrant 4y ago

Google search is way worse now. Maybe that is a factor resulting in reduced quality of answers as you experienced. For example lately I've searched for "prominent name company + product + question" only for Google to return a heap of blog articles of low quality, with the prominent company not appearing in first few pages of search results. Often the question is directly on an FAQ page of the product page. Why Google can't rank this properly anymore is a bit odd.

ChatGTP 4y ago
My theory is, Google killed good content by removing the incentive for making it and publishing it online. Then it went to stack overflow, reddit etc, now it all lives inside the brain (TM) where the content will get even worse.

Dalewyn 4y ago

>the home automation/assistant market hasn't been the goldmine that was predicted Customers are learning or have learned, the hard way, that home automation is not at all like fairy dust and unicorns. See for example: Linus Tech Tips.

sliken 4y ago
Heh, I do follow Linus Tech Tips, and shared their hate of subscriptions and almost bought a Ubiquiti g4 door bell they recommended because I didn't want a subscription, didn't want my video uploaded to a cloud, and wanted to keep everything on premise. Sadly unlike their Ubiquiti APs, where you can host the software on any hardware (even a Pi), their doorbell requires their hardware. Last thing I want is a security system that dies with whim of some random manufacturer.
mmahemoff 4y ago
I love my home automation setup, but it was slap in the face to get started and realise how brittle and poorly maintained this technology is, versus the hype that surrounds it. It makes for great demos in keynotes, followed by adoring media regurgitation, but actually try to set it up and nothing works as it’s meant to. The benefits outweigh the costs to me, but it’s only suitable for technically inclined folks with a lot of patience or those who are willing to outsource the whole process. An average consumer can’t just setup their lights/aircon/curtains to be voice controlled out of the box. This has been my experience for both Google and Alexa. Google’s app is particularly slow and tedious. Routines take several seconds to load and save. Neither platform has anything resembling a proper programming module with reusable code, ability to pull in open source modules, or listening to input and using it as variables. Unlike Alexa, you can’t even add sound effects to a routine with Google Home. This is a platform built around “smart” speakers. The voice interaction on both platforms is just not smart or contextual. ChatGPT highlights that.

shepherdjerred 4y ago

> Sadly it's gotten steadily worse since. Now it's now much more useful then setting alarms/timers and asking about the weather. Seems like it's WAY more limited now. Even gets confused by simple queries or just plain fails to work. I swear, there was a golden age around 2015/2016 when voice assistants worked _very_ well, and it has all gotten significantly worse since then. I used to use a Google Home all of the time, up until a year or two ago when I finally got rid of voice assistants.