10 ms·

Google Now

371 points by dirtyaura 14y ago

melvinmt 14y ago
It's only a matter of time before Google catches up on Apple on UI and slick hardware (really only the two core strengths of AAPL) and win by using Google's core strength: DATA. The future is bright.
godisdad 14y ago
Searching for "Google Now" in the Play store on my Galaxy S3 yields nothing, once again the Android user experience is found wanting.
wlk 14y ago
Where/When can I get it ?
- jedc 14y ago
  I believe it's simply a part of the JellyBean Android OS.
  - josteink 14y ago
    It is.
  - scott_w 14y ago
    It's interesting that I don't see any mention of this on the landing page. Perhaps I'm not looking closely enough, but I don't see anything that tells me how I can get it.
    - josteink 14y ago
      Swipe up from the bottom of the screen at your home-screen. It should show. I agree it's not something you discover without being told though ;)
      - scott_w 14y ago
        What I meant is that the page itself doesn't tell you anything about how you would actually get it. The first thing I did after clicking on the link was search the Play Store for "Google Now" - obviously it came up a blank. What this means is that I'll probably forget all about it by the time I either: a) get an Android 5 phone/tablet, or b) update my Galaxy S2 or Galaxy Tab to Android 5 Google could have alleviated some of this by having an app ready for download and linking to it. I have to admit that I hoped that this was the way forward since they released Chrome Beta, as opposed to relying on manufacturers/carriers updating their phones. Alas, it wasn't to be.
        josteink 14y ago
        Technically speaking it is Android 4.1, but yes I get your point. Anyway. You can tell from the way this is implemented that this is a core OS feature, not an addon app stacked on on top. The reason it's not out for ICS or older versions of Android is because they can't run it. They lack the pieces it uses through out.
        _mayo 14y ago
        I think the reason it's not an APK is due to the fact that it's baked in directly into Android 4.1's search.
      - colinaderwee 14y ago
        Actually it's also one of the quick actions on the lockscreen, along with camera and unlock. That should help discovery.
    - amurmann 14y ago
      Same here. I find it absolutely astonishing that they don't tell you how to get it. I had no idea how to get this. It wasn't even clear to me if this was an Android app or a web page. Especially from just looking at the pictures and without watching the video (which I am usually reluctant to do). I wonder if they assumed it would be obvious to everyone or just didn't car.
- markokocic 14y ago
  Will I be able to use latest Android OS without installing this?
  - tonfa 14y ago
    It's part of the standard OS, but manufacturers or custom ROM could disable it.
- brittohalloran 14y ago
  Not "now"
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
kerryjson 14y ago
How can I opt out? Or do I have to leave Android and buy a Windows Phone to avoid getting my information in that system?
- MattyRog 14y ago
  Seriously. Features like this, although very cool at a glance, are teaching future generations of users to have no respect for their privacy or personal information.
  - kerryjson 14y ago
    Could be, but it is an honest question. I fully understand and respect people who loves this, but I would like a little love back too for my desire to stay outside of this social maelstorm.
    - tensor 14y ago
      It's pretty easy to stay out of this, so I don't see the problem. Google is really good about telling you what it does and generally lets you opt out (or gets you to opt in). So what is the problem? I don't trust facebook and thus I don't use it. It's easy.
  - coopdog 14y ago
    At least with Google they will delete all your data and stop tracking you if requested, unless other companies cough facebook
- josteink 14y ago
  You don't. You have to opt in. I'm running it on my phone now and the first thing it did was ask "Hey. Is it OK if I do all these things?". It wont run without your permission. Unlike Apple, Google is pretty good at asking these things. Edit: Maybe Apple has gotten better. I just remember iTunes wiping my iPhone, iPod and all ID3 tags from my music collection numerous times when I was just supposed to copy/add some files. And that was before you even booted their OS. Well yes, glad you asked, I am fed up with Apple.
spiffistan 14y ago
That sure tickled my switch-to-android fancy
- peregrine 14y ago
  https://www.cueup.com/ https://www.cueup.com/ Is a similar product from a YC company.
  - pjscott 14y ago
    And it's on iPhone right now -- runs fine on 3GS and above. Android support is planned later.
- panacea 14y ago
  Same here. I bought the first iPhone the day it came out, but I'd much prefer this sort of addition to my next smartphone than what I've seen from iOS 6 so far (especially what I fear with the Apple Maps app). The first minute of that video is more compelling to me than the entire Microsoft Surface presentation/website etc.
drharris 14y ago
I'm thinking this is a definite value-add to Glass.
- pwny 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure Glass is the reason they do this. It really seems like it's a perfect fit for something you'd be wearing on your face constantly.
  - drharris 14y ago
    Indeed. Location-aware, time-aware. I'm seeing a Siri-killer. The best personal assistants know what you want before you ask for it. So, why not the same for digital assistants?
    - coopdog 14y ago
      Exactly, and you don't have to talk to it. It's just a notification, and (hopefully) learns which notifications are most useful for each person
  - cookiecaper 14y ago
    And a bad fit for something that's almost always in your pocket. When you pull your phone out because you want to call someone, how annoying is it going to be to dismiss the updates that pop up every time the score changes in a game your team is playing, or every time Google thinks you care about coupons to the restaurant around the corner? I don't know that this will really make a big difference in phone-user interaction. I hope it stays on Glass where the use case is actually semi-relevant.
bretthopper 14y ago
Google has definitely stepped up their UI design with Jellybean. Oddly enough, at Google I/O they showed the Sports card with real MLB teams, and on this page, it's fake teams (likely due to licensing rules). But even worse, is that they didn't notice the line scores are out of alignment: http://www.google.com/landing/now/images/card-sports.png http://www.google.com/landing/now/images/card-sports.png (Top row of Clovers is shifted over).
- perfunctory 14y ago
  Maybe that's a feature
  - Achshar 14y ago
    I can't see how that could be a feature. Misaligned list give wrong info, it looks more like a Photoshop mistake.
    - sigzero 14y ago
      I think he was "joking".
    - CrazedGeek 14y ago
      Maybe it's indicating the turn order?
      - papercrane 14y ago
        I'm positive you're right. Blaze is at home, so they are at bat in the first half of the inning, indicated by their row being shifted forward slightly. I think its a pretty clever design. Edit: Not so sure about it now. Its too bad it wasn't misaligned in the correct direction.
        sirclueless 14y ago
        That can't be true. Even if it was deliberate for the inning scores, the Runs/Hits/Errors columns are out of whack which makes no sense.
st0p 14y ago
Am I the only one seeing some kind of horrible speech-to-text subtitles that are really missing the point?
- mmahemoff 14y ago
  Not seeing that, maybe they turned it off.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- jsnell 14y ago
  You've turned on captioning in Youtube (the "CC" button at the bottom).
- mtgx 14y ago
  You're automatically transcribing audio into text in Youtube. Disable CC.
- methodin 14y ago
  It was on by default for me and I was really confused for a short period of time wondering what the heck they were trying to tell me as part of the video. It was hilarious, however.
  - adunk 14y ago
    I had the same experience. But the subtitles really were something extra, would definitely recommend for a laugh.
    - outworlder 14y ago
      Thanks for your tip. The subtitles are usually fairly accurate, but there's something messing with them on this video, could be the music or the narrator. Usually speech recognition errors are fairly routine, but in this case they are hilarious. Oh, and the word 'Android' was not recognized.
arb99 14y ago
Their subtitles (which are turned on automatically on that video) don't match up at all. Guessing it was automatically transcribed (speech to text)... would have thought they'd of tested that! (Or just manually entered them)
- tspiteri 14y ago
  Some people transcribe improperly too, e.g., "they'd of" instead of "they'd have". (Or is that "they'd've"?)
astro1138 14y ago
How do I publish custom cards?
- Achshar 14y ago
  There will be some kind of API i guess, but another thing is Google Now is an app in itself, and i am not an android dev, but an app having developer API does not seem very fitting. For example, gmail can have intents but not an API for other apps to use, i guess.
josteink 14y ago
I love it. I love how it warns me that to make the meeting on other side of town I need to be going in 10 minutes. Because without asking it used my calendar, the GPS, Google Maps and calculated how long it would take for me to get to my next meeting. This is pretty sweet tech. This is above anyone else on the market right now.
mmahemoff 14y ago
Hoping they add support for 3rd party plugins (and gasp RSS feeds) in the future.
Johnyma22 14y ago
Hey Joe pubilc. Give us all your personal info, we provide you pretty UI. Oh and how about this recommended cafe to visit with your friend? If you go here is a 10% voucher.. Just saying..
- prezjordan 14y ago
  I feel like it should bother me, but it doesn't.
- mtgx 14y ago
  Isn't Foursquare based kind of on a similar idea? You tell people where you are to get something out of it. As long as it's completely optional, and the user understands what he's getting into, I don't see the problem with it.
- tomp 14y ago
  This is much less of a privacy issue for me than is when Google reads my email, for example. Here, I'm aware of the fact that my data (location, appointments, flight plans) is read, because I couldn't get the recommendations/information otherwise. So, it's much more of a consensual act. If they use this data for other purposes (ads/paid recommendations/geotracking), that is a separate issue, and I would be very mad.
  - Artistry121 14y ago
    Google doesn't "read" your emails. The information completely secured from human eyes. A computer looks for words and phrases and tries to match ads to email content. Sometimes this is helpful, but the advertisers only receive anonymous data and no humans at Google or anywhere else read your data. Source: http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6603 http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe...
    - Karunamon 14y ago
      The information completely secured from human eyes That isn't entirely accurate. There has to be a way to access mailboxes for troubleshooting/compliance purposes - A couple years ago, a Google engineer got fired for snooping into some kid's mailbox. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369188,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369188,00.asp
tomp 14y ago
It's sad that all these generic names that Google is coming up with (Play, Now, Plus, Glass), can probably be copyrighted and everybody else would then be prevented from using them... What a wicked capitalistic world, what a sad day for freedom.
- zdean 14y ago
  Copyright is a political construct. Capitalism is an econonmic system. There's no inherent cause and effect between them.
  - tomp 14y ago
    Our politicians thinking in ways that are (IMO) too capitalistic and corporationalistic is the cause of the copyright taking over the freedom of speech.
  - bnegreve 14y ago
    > There's no inherent cause and effect between them. Why not ? I think it is fair to believe there is one.
- drharris 14y ago
  You probably can't get the trademark on a single word like those. Any trademark would likely have to include the word or logo for Google. That said, if Yahoo creates a music/video service called Yahoo Play, you can guarantee there will be a successful lawsuit.
  - tomp 14y ago
    That's what I meant. Play is the best/most obvious word when trying to combine the meanings of "listen" (to music) and "watch" (movies). And now, a single company controls it, and no one else can use it in this manner (e.g. for a media store).
  - ceejayoz 14y ago
    Microsoft has a trademark on "Windows", so it's entirely possible to get one on a single word. T-Mobile claims one on the colour magenta.
truth_dude 14y ago
battery killer?????
- Achshar 14y ago
  I remember during the android session someone asked the question and the official response was that it will take as much power when phone is active than when it's not. Don't know what that implies though.
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  I wonder about that too. Similar apps today are battery drains. But maybe it's using new 4.1 APIs that only fire events when the app really needs it? Since they announced it as part of Jelly Bean, makes me think so.
- rryan 14y ago
  No perceptible effect on my battery life so-far. I believe it is mostly server-side.
ToesByNoon 14y ago
Just allow us to keep your "web history" and we'll serve up the exact ads... err content you want! Does anyone keep web history enabled? Nice to see Google trying to get people to by making this seem useless without it.
degenerate 14y ago
How come whenever Google launches something, I only know the who/what, but am never told the when/where/how? Telling me WHEN (if ever) this will be available on my device, WHERE to download it when that happens, and HOW it will integrate into my device/profile would be really nice to read about :(
- jamesgeck0 14y ago
  It's a part of Android 4.1, so the WHEN, WHERE and HOW depend a lot on what phone you have.
  - bookwormAT 14y ago
    "It's a part of Android 4.1" Is it? I think Google Now is part of the "Google Apps for Android" suite. These apps are not part of Android itself, they are licensed by manufacturers to complement their Android-based operating system. And these Apps are usually updated by Google and independently from the OS. So unless "Google Now" uses a specific API that is only available in 4.1, I would expect older devices receive the app as well.
    - fudged 14y ago
      It's not an app... it's like the notification tray. You can't simply 'take' the notification tray from one OS to another. Same with this. It comes with Jelly Bean.
      - ryanhuff 14y ago
        So my one year old phone will never see it. I am so tired of the one year obsolescence cycle of Android phones.
        myko 14y ago
        This is why I recommend only Nexus devices.
  - 14y ago
brown9-2 14y ago
Confusing that nothing on the page (besides the video) mentions the word "Android" or how you can get Now.
- mike-cardwell 14y ago
  Yes. I just wasted my time looking on the Android market place for something called Google Now, and not finding it.
  - onlyup 14y ago
    Same, I searched for it too. Is it an app?
  - antihero 14y ago
    This irritated the fuck out of me, I wish they'd explain what the hell it is. Turns out, it's what happens if you swipe from the bottom up in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but I think it might be a broader thing (I can imagine it works with glasses).
  - bhaile 14y ago
    Same here. I thought it was an app initially after reading about it. They should highlight that it comes with Jelly Bean and not as a separate add-on. Or state that an app is coming soon for devices on Android 2.x and 4.0x.
- vitalique 14y ago
  This is more than strange for a page which has 'landing' in the URL (www.google.com/landing/now/). Vague video, vague texts and no hints as what am I supposed to do with this Now-thing, or even what it actually is. Left me totally clueless of what to do next. Also, I wonder if Now is going to be available in the future for Google customers with devices other than Android or maybe even as a web-app or iGoogle widget.
- rwhitman 14y ago
  Exactly. Is it an Android app? A browser / mobile combo? Is there an iOS version? Where do I get it? If I can't try it now, when is it being released?
DanielBMarkham 14y ago
"...Cards appear throughout the day..." Yay, just what I wanted: yet another software service to interrupt me thoughout the day. Snarkiness aside, I'm sure the information is relevant and good. But if I forget that my favorite team is playing while I'm working on a design, do I really need to be reminded? People are not machines. I do not subscribe to and process an information feed in the same way that an email client would. I see Google continually trying to work the problem of strong AI and transhumanism and that's great. I'm all for it. But they seem strangely blind about the real hard edges associated with being human. Instead of assistance it all seems to be about data, speed, and relevance. It seems the assumption is that people will adapt to however fast we can push the information at them. I'm not so sure that is an valid assumption. Or if it is, I'm not sure I like the way we would adapt to this vision of the future.
- ConstantineXVI 14y ago
  I'm not under the impression it constantly notifies you, only that the cards it's showing you when you launch it are shuffled (sorry) depending on what's going on.
- methodin 14y ago
  We've never gotten there so it's an intriguing experiment regardless if you agree with it or not. 12 years ago I imagine most people thought it would be ludicrous that people would be walking around consumed in a mobile device - but that came to fruition just as stuff like this will.
  - disappointment 14y ago
    Believe it or not, we had PDAs back then. And before that, we had pocket TVs.
    - marcusf 14y ago
      But they were never mass market in the same way. Walk on to the tube today and 70% will have their noses buried in an iPhone (or less often, a 'droid). That wasn't the case with either PDA's or pocket TV's. Possibly with walkmans/iPods.
marijn 14y ago
Translation: Here's another reason why you should give us all your data!
- darkstalker 14y ago
  People complains about getting spied by google, but already is happily giving all his data to facebook
  - hackinthebochs 14y ago
    Google has far more information about me than facebook does. My search habits paint a far more detailed and personal picture about me than where I went or what I ate today. It is completely reasonable to be weary of giving even more data to google. I'd rather not have all my information housed in a single company. I trust google just as much as facebook (very little).
saltcod 14y ago
Anyone know the font they're using? That nice, big open one?
- bjcubsfan 14y ago
  I think that's Roboto. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboto
tspiteri 14y ago
There are quite a few privacy concerns about these technologies, and I think that proper legislation is necessary to address them. Most people trust a bank to hold their money, and there is legislation to control financial institutions. Now, people are increasingly trusting their data with data banks, and there needs to be legislation to control how the data is stored securely and not abused.
- hahainternet 14y ago
  Do you mean something like the Data Protection Act?
deleted 14y ago
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apricot13 14y ago
This means I have to leave wifi or data on to be notified in the morning which kills my phone. I already manually check the weather by turning on wifi and opening an app this just cuts out an extra tap!
joeybaker 14y ago
Looks a lot like Greplin — I mean Cue. :) https://www.cueup.com/ https://www.cueup.com/
- freshfunk 14y ago
  My thoughts exactly.
bmelton 14y ago
I think this is a direct competitor to the recently re-launched Cue, but with perhaps better integration with things like Glass. I'm eager to see how the Cue/Greplin team aim to address this shot across the bow, and having never used either, if there's something distinctly different about them that migh encourage me to use both (or Cue vs Now). Interesting to see two such complete implementations of 'day-planning' hit so closely to each other.
- nik_0_0 14y ago
  First thing I thought as well, extraordinarily similar to Cue, with (most likely) much stronger integration: maps, calendar, mail, etc.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - bmelton 14y ago
    I certainly appreciate the response, and hope for the best for you guys. If anything should embolden you, it's that while Google does tend to do a great job unveiling new products (like "Now"), they often fall behind on iterating, at least as compared to smaller, nimbler teams are able to. Also, they aren't at all very likely to integrate with non-Google services, so there's that. Of course, this is a new 'flagship' type of thing for JellyBean users, so they'll likely be focused on making it really good. Again, good luck. I can relate to established giants announcing competitors before you've had a good while to get traction, so I know it can be disheartening, but it also validates the hell out of the market, and there's no saying that Apple will ever be able to approve their iphone client as it likely competes with Siri a good deal.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  My thoughts too. Cue seems to have better design, but Google has massive resources for data mining and interpretation. Looks like a new app category just sprung up.
- SCdF 14y ago
  https://www.cueup.com/ https://www.cueup.com/ , for those of you who don't know what it is (it's really hard to google for, cue is not an especially unique name).
yread 14y ago
Looks a bit like what live tiles should do. And the design looks quite a bit like Metro. Perhaps they'll publish it on WP8 as well?
BradleyStC 14y ago
Lots of different div's there on the page telling me how great it is, but where's the all important Call-To-Action?. I clicked back to HN to try and figure out what it actually is and maybe how to get it.
nitinthewiz 14y ago
Now all they have to do is release the API and someone will Port it to iOS :)
courtewing 14y ago
What I find most interesting is the potential for an app like this to help shape your habits in such a way that is directly beneficial to Google. We're seeing this more and more with tighter integrations between major google products, but I feel this goes above and beyond what we've traditionally seen from Google in terms of habit-building. A personal example: I fly a few times a year, and I always check my flight status at the specific airline's website. I haven't really looked into other options because I've held a "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" attitude, and it is a simple enough task. But if I were to use an app like this, suddenly I have a huge added incentive to search for my flight statuses on google. I don't mean to imply that this is a bad thing. To the contrary, I think it is a smart business decision that adds a lot of value to all of the integrated google products for the user. I just found it interesting when I was trying to decide what the "value" was to google for a product like this.
localhost3000 14y ago
reminds me a bit of zazu
AndyKelley 14y ago
I am reminded about this scene from Wall-E: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohcwksrvDOg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohcwksrvDOg
mikk0j 14y ago
LOL. The closed captioning in the beginning of that demo video reads like a haiku from an emo kid: "Tear out your day / all that information is rainy days / actually needed." Not sure if it makes me trust Google's efforts to bring me "just the right information at just the right time."
- dcaranda 14y ago
  Nice catch. More gold from Google's automated closed captioning on their own promotional video: "dissented japanese underground you're done" "to the mountain tell you what internet xxx" (personal favorite) "fearsome evil" "graceland"
- nixarn 14y ago
  yeah I couldn't stop reading that text. I was wondering wtf the text was all about ^_^ ( http://i.imgur.com/IhOXd.png http://i.imgur.com/IhOXd.png )
xxiao 14y ago
is this the simplified igoogle? how am I supposed to use it? don't see it under my account anywhere.
jsz0 14y ago
I hate the thought of worrying about the future ramifications of my searches. For example if someone asks me to check the time of a sports ball game for them will Google Now nag me with sports scores I don't care about in the future?
- jpwagner 14y ago
  I'm constantly frustrated by this. I use incognito browsing way too often. Then when I come across something by accident that I do want in my history (either for searching through history later or because chrome occasionally crashes), I have to copy the link over to a normal-browsing chrome window.
  - skeletonjelly 14y ago
    Can you not bookmark it within the Incognito session?
- sp332 14y ago
  It's not exactly convenient but it's possible to go to https://www.google.com/history/edit https://www.google.com/history/edit and edit your search history, in case this becomes more of an issue in the future.
g-garron 14y ago
Now they will even know what do I eat!. Google will know me even better than myself. I'm not sure I like the idea.
iamgopal 14y ago
I see it as a downgraded version of Google Wave(robots & gadgets). ( or in long term extension of mail )
CubicleNinjas 14y ago
This feels like its aimed at Siri, and if so I feel it misunderstands Siri's value. I don't want pushed content. I want light content that is pulled with my personal, minimal, request and without fuss. This is random content covered in fuss. I'll completely leave any real judgement until its release, but I can't help but wonder how long until I can "sponsor" a local card? Also, Google needs to pair down its services. Releases like these were once major announcements, but they're no longer covered because everyone knows Google's lack of focus may kill a service in a short time. These blanket services have really begun to overlap and I almost need a comparison chart of them just for Google's offerings.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  1. It's disableable, prioritizable and is mostly user driven out of the box anyway. 2. I don't know why you think Google would push this here. People like to act like Google is going to push ads on people, but they have no history. They've always been about unintrusive, (seriously now) helpful ads. It seems like this is just a hypothetical reason to position against Google Now right out of the gate. 3. Google is "pairing down". They cut dozens of things in March and Google+ has done wonders for unifying value and promoting integration across Google products. I don't even know how to address the last sentence, it's just blatantly hyperbolic.
  - CubicleNinjas 14y ago
    1. Good news. 2. The term "helpful ads" is the problem. I don't get helpful ads. I get page clutter that is parsing my content. Google's business is advertising. They make the vast majority of their money by stopping me from doing what I want, and placing ads in my way. The evolution of the search results page shows this clearly as many cases about 80% of the screen real estate is covered in ad content. It is important to note that Android is not an altruistic effort to help humanity. They believe mobile will be the next wave of computing and need a new model for serving ads. Items like Siri worry them because a user skips Google and is provided no "helpful ads". To say they don't have a history of this is wrong. Search, YouTube, Maps, Mail, and Android itself are all heavily ad covered now and all signs point to this growing. 3. They're pairing down after they launched them. This is my concern. Devs adopted some of these services to watch them die. Now they've launched many new items which will be dead within 1 year. I'm not being hyperbolic. Then tell me: • How is Video different than YouTube? • How are Maps and Earth distinct? • Why does News exist when I can use the keyword news? • Where should I put my online content: Blogger, Orkut, Sites, or Google +? • Talk is very interesting, but why should I use it alone instead of Gmail Chat or Google Hangouts? • Panoramio, Google+, Picasa, or Orkut for sharing photos? • Fusion Tables looks fun, but why wouldn't it be better to launch a public Google Spreadsheet? Finally, Google has seemingly paired down the list of products on their product page, but most products aren't even listed! Where's play, drive, or any of the items they announced today. To say they don't have a problem here is drinking the kool-aid so hard you might not wake up.
freshfunk 14y ago
This is the killer app for Google Glasses. Get relevant information in your HUD throughout the day. Awesome.
- pjscott 14y ago
  I'm not sure. There's a big psychological difference between push and pull -- if you check your phone, then you'll pulling the information at your convenience, but if it gets pushed to you on a HUD, then that's potentially intrusive and distracting. I think the only way they could really make that work is to have a good way of telling when it's reasonable to push information to a Glass-wearer, and that's tricky. Definitely cool if they can figure it out, though.
deleted 14y ago
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ondrae 14y ago
I have all kinds of questions about how they choose which information is most important about a user's geography, such as showing trains schedules when in the station. Did they take all of their Google Places categories and analyze which apps where being used more in what types of places? How do they decide where you are at in a city, where locations are all stacked on top of each other? I hope they open this up so we can add in relevant streams, mostly public safety info. p.s. I would love to work on these problems. City data is super interesting to me.
samrat 14y ago
So, is this Google's answer to Siri?
pawelwentpawel 14y ago
It would be really cool if this would have a rule-system programmable by user. Something like - "if I'm next to a good [type] restaurant show a card", "When I enter my flat, show me [last messages, friends updates, ..., n] etc. On{x} (www.onx.ms) seems to be doing it in a pretty interesting way. I'm pretty sure that merging those two ideas would create a very handy product.
masukomi 14y ago
maybe it's me but, with the exclusion of the sports scores "Google Now" really seems more like "Google Here".
deleted 14y ago
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ezekieldas 14y ago
Nearly all features note: 'Only shown if location services enabled'
egypturnash 14y ago
Isn't this exactly what Greplin pivoted to with Cue? Like, last week? Except Cue is an app that can be loaded onto any iPhone, while it's unclear whether Now is a part of the new version of Android, an app, or what. And if it's a core part of the latest version of Android, well, good luck getting that in your life without buying another phone.
dhughes 14y ago
I'd +1 it but ... no +1 button.
mattbirchler 14y ago
One thing I really like about Google is that if this is a hit, they will bring it to other platforms. Counter to what Google would like, this is one reason I feel comfortable sticking with iOS.
sthejo 14y ago
Good move Google, let the haters hate, Bring it on!
EzGraphs 14y ago
It's easy to dismiss Now as yet-another-notification-app. But as PG as said: Don't be discouraged if what you produce initially is something other people dismiss as a toy. In fact, that's a good sign. That's probably why everyone else has been overlooking the idea. http://paulgraham.com/organic.html http://paulgraham.com/organic.html The problem that Google is focused on is reducing the number of clicks required to get you relevant information now... from one to zero. It's a problem that Google Now might not solve, but somebody eventually will.
nashke 14y ago
This seems to be a basis for a future "Google goggles" product
supercopter 14y ago
Interestingly there's not a single word in the description about Android or Jelly Bean or Nexus or smartphones or tablets... Could this mean that Google Now is intended to be available across multiple platforms (including desktop environments)?

371 points by dirtyaura 14y ago

It's only a matter of time before Google catches up on Apple on UI and slick hardware (really only the two core strengths of AAPL) and win by using Google's core strength: DATA. The future is bright.

godisdad 14y ago

Searching for "Google Now" in the Play store on my Galaxy S3 yields nothing, once again the Android user experience is found wanting.

wlk 14y ago

Where/When can I get it ?

jedc 14y ago
I believe it's simply a part of the JellyBean Android OS.
- josteink 14y ago
  It is.
- scott_w 14y ago
  It's interesting that I don't see any mention of this on the landing page. Perhaps I'm not looking closely enough, but I don't see anything that tells me how I can get it.
  - josteink 14y ago
    Swipe up from the bottom of the screen at your home-screen. It should show. I agree it's not something you discover without being told though ;)
    - scott_w 14y ago
      What I meant is that the page itself doesn't tell you anything about how you would actually get it. The first thing I did after clicking on the link was search the Play Store for "Google Now" - obviously it came up a blank. What this means is that I'll probably forget all about it by the time I either: a) get an Android 5 phone/tablet, or b) update my Galaxy S2 or Galaxy Tab to Android 5 Google could have alleviated some of this by having an app ready for download and linking to it. I have to admit that I hoped that this was the way forward since they released Chrome Beta, as opposed to relying on manufacturers/carriers updating their phones. Alas, it wasn't to be.
      - josteink 14y ago
        Technically speaking it is Android 4.1, but yes I get your point. Anyway. You can tell from the way this is implemented that this is a core OS feature, not an addon app stacked on on top. The reason it's not out for ICS or older versions of Android is because they can't run it. They lack the pieces it uses through out.
      - _mayo 14y ago
        I think the reason it's not an APK is due to the fact that it's baked in directly into Android 4.1's search.
    - colinaderwee 14y ago
      Actually it's also one of the quick actions on the lockscreen, along with camera and unlock. That should help discovery.
  - amurmann 14y ago
    Same here. I find it absolutely astonishing that they don't tell you how to get it. I had no idea how to get this. It wasn't even clear to me if this was an Android app or a web page. Especially from just looking at the pictures and without watching the video (which I am usually reluctant to do). I wonder if they assumed it would be obvious to everyone or just didn't car.
markokocic 14y ago
Will I be able to use latest Android OS without installing this?
- tonfa 14y ago
  It's part of the standard OS, but manufacturers or custom ROM could disable it.
brittohalloran 14y ago
Not "now"

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

kerryjson 14y ago

How can I opt out? Or do I have to leave Android and buy a Windows Phone to avoid getting my information in that system?

MattyRog 14y ago
Seriously. Features like this, although very cool at a glance, are teaching future generations of users to have no respect for their privacy or personal information.
- kerryjson 14y ago
  Could be, but it is an honest question. I fully understand and respect people who loves this, but I would like a little love back too for my desire to stay outside of this social maelstorm.
  - tensor 14y ago
    It's pretty easy to stay out of this, so I don't see the problem. Google is really good about telling you what it does and generally lets you opt out (or gets you to opt in). So what is the problem? I don't trust facebook and thus I don't use it. It's easy.
- coopdog 14y ago
  At least with Google they will delete all your data and stop tracking you if requested, unless other companies cough facebook
josteink 14y ago
You don't. You have to opt in. I'm running it on my phone now and the first thing it did was ask "Hey. Is it OK if I do all these things?". It wont run without your permission. Unlike Apple, Google is pretty good at asking these things. Edit: Maybe Apple has gotten better. I just remember iTunes wiping my iPhone, iPod and all ID3 tags from my music collection numerous times when I was just supposed to copy/add some files. And that was before you even booted their OS. Well yes, glad you asked, I am fed up with Apple.

spiffistan 14y ago

That sure tickled my switch-to-android fancy

peregrine 14y ago
https://www.cueup.com/ https://www.cueup.com/ Is a similar product from a YC company.
- pjscott 14y ago
  And it's on iPhone right now -- runs fine on 3GS and above. Android support is planned later.
panacea 14y ago
Same here. I bought the first iPhone the day it came out, but I'd much prefer this sort of addition to my next smartphone than what I've seen from iOS 6 so far (especially what I fear with the Apple Maps app). The first minute of that video is more compelling to me than the entire Microsoft Surface presentation/website etc.

drharris 14y ago

I'm thinking this is a definite value-add to Glass.

pwny 14y ago
I'm pretty sure Glass is the reason they do this. It really seems like it's a perfect fit for something you'd be wearing on your face constantly.
- drharris 14y ago
  Indeed. Location-aware, time-aware. I'm seeing a Siri-killer. The best personal assistants know what you want before you ask for it. So, why not the same for digital assistants?
  - coopdog 14y ago
    Exactly, and you don't have to talk to it. It's just a notification, and (hopefully) learns which notifications are most useful for each person
- cookiecaper 14y ago
  And a bad fit for something that's almost always in your pocket. When you pull your phone out because you want to call someone, how annoying is it going to be to dismiss the updates that pop up every time the score changes in a game your team is playing, or every time Google thinks you care about coupons to the restaurant around the corner? I don't know that this will really make a big difference in phone-user interaction. I hope it stays on Glass where the use case is actually semi-relevant.

bretthopper 14y ago

Google has definitely stepped up their UI design with Jellybean. Oddly enough, at Google I/O they showed the Sports card with real MLB teams, and on this page, it's fake teams (likely due to licensing rules). But even worse, is that they didn't notice the line scores are out of alignment: http://www.google.com/landing/now/images/card-sports.png http://www.google.com/landing/now/images/card-sports.png (Top row of Clovers is shifted over).

perfunctory 14y ago
Maybe that's a feature
- Achshar 14y ago
  I can't see how that could be a feature. Misaligned list give wrong info, it looks more like a Photoshop mistake.
  - sigzero 14y ago
    I think he was "joking".
  - CrazedGeek 14y ago
    Maybe it's indicating the turn order?
    - papercrane 14y ago
      I'm positive you're right. Blaze is at home, so they are at bat in the first half of the inning, indicated by their row being shifted forward slightly. I think its a pretty clever design. Edit: Not so sure about it now. Its too bad it wasn't misaligned in the correct direction.
      - sirclueless 14y ago
        That can't be true. Even if it was deliberate for the inning scores, the Runs/Hits/Errors columns are out of whack which makes no sense.

st0p 14y ago

Am I the only one seeing some kind of horrible speech-to-text subtitles that are really missing the point?

mmahemoff 14y ago
Not seeing that, maybe they turned it off.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
jsnell 14y ago
You've turned on captioning in Youtube (the "CC" button at the bottom).
mtgx 14y ago
You're automatically transcribing audio into text in Youtube. Disable CC.
methodin 14y ago
It was on by default for me and I was really confused for a short period of time wondering what the heck they were trying to tell me as part of the video. It was hilarious, however.
- adunk 14y ago
  I had the same experience. But the subtitles really were something extra, would definitely recommend for a laugh.
  - outworlder 14y ago
    Thanks for your tip. The subtitles are usually fairly accurate, but there's something messing with them on this video, could be the music or the narrator. Usually speech recognition errors are fairly routine, but in this case they are hilarious. Oh, and the word 'Android' was not recognized.

arb99 14y ago

Their subtitles (which are turned on automatically on that video) don't match up at all. Guessing it was automatically transcribed (speech to text)... would have thought they'd of tested that! (Or just manually entered them)

tspiteri 14y ago
Some people transcribe improperly too, e.g., "they'd of" instead of "they'd have". (Or is that "they'd've"?)

astro1138 14y ago

How do I publish custom cards?

Achshar 14y ago
There will be some kind of API i guess, but another thing is Google Now is an app in itself, and i am not an android dev, but an app having developer API does not seem very fitting. For example, gmail can have intents but not an API for other apps to use, i guess.

josteink 14y ago

I love it. I love how it warns me that to make the meeting on other side of town I need to be going in 10 minutes. Because without asking it used my calendar, the GPS, Google Maps and calculated how long it would take for me to get to my next meeting. This is pretty sweet tech. This is above anyone else on the market right now.

mmahemoff 14y ago

Hoping they add support for 3rd party plugins (and gasp RSS feeds) in the future.

Johnyma22 14y ago

Hey Joe pubilc. Give us all your personal info, we provide you pretty UI. Oh and how about this recommended cafe to visit with your friend? If you go here is a 10% voucher.. Just saying..

prezjordan 14y ago
I feel like it should bother me, but it doesn't.
mtgx 14y ago
Isn't Foursquare based kind of on a similar idea? You tell people where you are to get something out of it. As long as it's completely optional, and the user understands what he's getting into, I don't see the problem with it.
tomp 14y ago
This is much less of a privacy issue for me than is when Google reads my email, for example. Here, I'm aware of the fact that my data (location, appointments, flight plans) is read, because I couldn't get the recommendations/information otherwise. So, it's much more of a consensual act. If they use this data for other purposes (ads/paid recommendations/geotracking), that is a separate issue, and I would be very mad.
- Artistry121 14y ago
  Google doesn't "read" your emails. The information completely secured from human eyes. A computer looks for words and phrases and tries to match ads to email content. Sometimes this is helpful, but the advertisers only receive anonymous data and no humans at Google or anywhere else read your data. Source: http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6603 http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe...
  - Karunamon 14y ago
    The information completely secured from human eyes That isn't entirely accurate. There has to be a way to access mailboxes for troubleshooting/compliance purposes - A couple years ago, a Google engineer got fired for snooping into some kid's mailbox. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369188,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369188,00.asp

tomp 14y ago

It's sad that all these generic names that Google is coming up with (Play, Now, Plus, Glass), can probably be copyrighted and everybody else would then be prevented from using them... What a wicked capitalistic world, what a sad day for freedom.

zdean 14y ago
Copyright is a political construct. Capitalism is an econonmic system. There's no inherent cause and effect between them.
- tomp 14y ago
  Our politicians thinking in ways that are (IMO) too capitalistic and corporationalistic is the cause of the copyright taking over the freedom of speech.
- bnegreve 14y ago
  > There's no inherent cause and effect between them. Why not ? I think it is fair to believe there is one.
drharris 14y ago
You probably can't get the trademark on a single word like those. Any trademark would likely have to include the word or logo for Google. That said, if Yahoo creates a music/video service called Yahoo Play, you can guarantee there will be a successful lawsuit.
- tomp 14y ago
  That's what I meant. Play is the best/most obvious word when trying to combine the meanings of "listen" (to music) and "watch" (movies). And now, a single company controls it, and no one else can use it in this manner (e.g. for a media store).
- ceejayoz 14y ago
  Microsoft has a trademark on "Windows", so it's entirely possible to get one on a single word. T-Mobile claims one on the colour magenta.

truth_dude 14y ago

battery killer?????

Achshar 14y ago
I remember during the android session someone asked the question and the official response was that it will take as much power when phone is active than when it's not. Don't know what that implies though.
vibrunazo 14y ago
I wonder about that too. Similar apps today are battery drains. But maybe it's using new 4.1 APIs that only fire events when the app really needs it? Since they announced it as part of Jelly Bean, makes me think so.
rryan 14y ago
No perceptible effect on my battery life so-far. I believe it is mostly server-side.

ToesByNoon 14y ago

Just allow us to keep your "web history" and we'll serve up the exact ads... err content you want! Does anyone keep web history enabled? Nice to see Google trying to get people to by making this seem useless without it.

degenerate 14y ago

How come whenever Google launches something, I only know the who/what, but am never told the when/where/how? Telling me WHEN (if ever) this will be available on my device, WHERE to download it when that happens, and HOW it will integrate into my device/profile would be really nice to read about :(

jamesgeck0 14y ago
It's a part of Android 4.1, so the WHEN, WHERE and HOW depend a lot on what phone you have.
- bookwormAT 14y ago
  "It's a part of Android 4.1" Is it? I think Google Now is part of the "Google Apps for Android" suite. These apps are not part of Android itself, they are licensed by manufacturers to complement their Android-based operating system. And these Apps are usually updated by Google and independently from the OS. So unless "Google Now" uses a specific API that is only available in 4.1, I would expect older devices receive the app as well.
  - fudged 14y ago
    It's not an app... it's like the notification tray. You can't simply 'take' the notification tray from one OS to another. Same with this. It comes with Jelly Bean.
    - ryanhuff 14y ago
      So my one year old phone will never see it. I am so tired of the one year obsolescence cycle of Android phones.
      - myko 14y ago
        This is why I recommend only Nexus devices.
- 14y ago

brown9-2 14y ago

Confusing that nothing on the page (besides the video) mentions the word "Android" or how you can get Now.

mike-cardwell 14y ago
Yes. I just wasted my time looking on the Android market place for something called Google Now, and not finding it.
- onlyup 14y ago
  Same, I searched for it too. Is it an app?
- antihero 14y ago
  This irritated the fuck out of me, I wish they'd explain what the hell it is. Turns out, it's what happens if you swipe from the bottom up in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but I think it might be a broader thing (I can imagine it works with glasses).
- bhaile 14y ago
  Same here. I thought it was an app initially after reading about it. They should highlight that it comes with Jelly Bean and not as a separate add-on. Or state that an app is coming soon for devices on Android 2.x and 4.0x.
vitalique 14y ago
This is more than strange for a page which has 'landing' in the URL (www.google.com/landing/now/). Vague video, vague texts and no hints as what am I supposed to do with this Now-thing, or even what it actually is. Left me totally clueless of what to do next. Also, I wonder if Now is going to be available in the future for Google customers with devices other than Android or maybe even as a web-app or iGoogle widget.
rwhitman 14y ago
Exactly. Is it an Android app? A browser / mobile combo? Is there an iOS version? Where do I get it? If I can't try it now, when is it being released?

DanielBMarkham 14y ago

"...Cards appear throughout the day..." Yay, just what I wanted: yet another software service to interrupt me thoughout the day. Snarkiness aside, I'm sure the information is relevant and good. But if I forget that my favorite team is playing while I'm working on a design, do I really need to be reminded? People are not machines. I do not subscribe to and process an information feed in the same way that an email client would. I see Google continually trying to work the problem of strong AI and transhumanism and that's great. I'm all for it. But they seem strangely blind about the real hard edges associated with being human. Instead of assistance it all seems to be about data, speed, and relevance. It seems the assumption is that people will adapt to however fast we can push the information at them. I'm not so sure that is an valid assumption. Or if it is, I'm not sure I like the way we would adapt to this vision of the future.

ConstantineXVI 14y ago
I'm not under the impression it constantly notifies you, only that the cards it's showing you when you launch it are shuffled (sorry) depending on what's going on.
methodin 14y ago
We've never gotten there so it's an intriguing experiment regardless if you agree with it or not. 12 years ago I imagine most people thought it would be ludicrous that people would be walking around consumed in a mobile device - but that came to fruition just as stuff like this will.
- disappointment 14y ago
  Believe it or not, we had PDAs back then. And before that, we had pocket TVs.
  - marcusf 14y ago
    But they were never mass market in the same way. Walk on to the tube today and 70% will have their noses buried in an iPhone (or less often, a 'droid). That wasn't the case with either PDA's or pocket TV's. Possibly with walkmans/iPods.

marijn 14y ago

Translation: Here's another reason why you should give us all your data!

darkstalker 14y ago
People complains about getting spied by google, but already is happily giving all his data to facebook
- hackinthebochs 14y ago
  Google has far more information about me than facebook does. My search habits paint a far more detailed and personal picture about me than where I went or what I ate today. It is completely reasonable to be weary of giving even more data to google. I'd rather not have all my information housed in a single company. I trust google just as much as facebook (very little).

saltcod 14y ago

Anyone know the font they're using? That nice, big open one?

bjcubsfan 14y ago
I think that's Roboto. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roboto

tspiteri 14y ago

There are quite a few privacy concerns about these technologies, and I think that proper legislation is necessary to address them. Most people trust a bank to hold their money, and there is legislation to control financial institutions. Now, people are increasingly trusting their data with data banks, and there needs to be legislation to control how the data is stored securely and not abused.

hahainternet 14y ago
Do you mean something like the Data Protection Act?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

apricot13 14y ago

This means I have to leave wifi or data on to be notified in the morning which kills my phone. I already manually check the weather by turning on wifi and opening an app this just cuts out an extra tap!

joeybaker 14y ago

Looks a lot like Greplin — I mean Cue. :) https://www.cueup.com/ https://www.cueup.com/

freshfunk 14y ago
My thoughts exactly.

bmelton 14y ago

I think this is a direct competitor to the recently re-launched Cue, but with perhaps better integration with things like Glass. I'm eager to see how the Cue/Greplin team aim to address this shot across the bow, and having never used either, if there's something distinctly different about them that migh encourage me to use both (or Cue vs Now). Interesting to see two such complete implementations of 'day-planning' hit so closely to each other.

nik_0_0 14y ago
First thing I thought as well, extraordinarily similar to Cue, with (most likely) much stronger integration: maps, calendar, mail, etc.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- bmelton 14y ago
  I certainly appreciate the response, and hope for the best for you guys. If anything should embolden you, it's that while Google does tend to do a great job unveiling new products (like "Now"), they often fall behind on iterating, at least as compared to smaller, nimbler teams are able to. Also, they aren't at all very likely to integrate with non-Google services, so there's that. Of course, this is a new 'flagship' type of thing for JellyBean users, so they'll likely be focused on making it really good. Again, good luck. I can relate to established giants announcing competitors before you've had a good while to get traction, so I know it can be disheartening, but it also validates the hell out of the market, and there's no saying that Apple will ever be able to approve their iphone client as it likely competes with Siri a good deal.
ricardobeat 14y ago
My thoughts too. Cue seems to have better design, but Google has massive resources for data mining and interpretation. Looks like a new app category just sprung up.
SCdF 14y ago
https://www.cueup.com/ https://www.cueup.com/ , for those of you who don't know what it is (it's really hard to google for, cue is not an especially unique name).

yread 14y ago

Looks a bit like what live tiles should do. And the design looks quite a bit like Metro. Perhaps they'll publish it on WP8 as well?

BradleyStC 14y ago

Lots of different div's there on the page telling me how great it is, but where's the all important Call-To-Action?. I clicked back to HN to try and figure out what it actually is and maybe how to get it.

nitinthewiz 14y ago

Now all they have to do is release the API and someone will Port it to iOS :)

courtewing 14y ago

What I find most interesting is the potential for an app like this to help shape your habits in such a way that is directly beneficial to Google. We're seeing this more and more with tighter integrations between major google products, but I feel this goes above and beyond what we've traditionally seen from Google in terms of habit-building. A personal example: I fly a few times a year, and I always check my flight status at the specific airline's website. I haven't really looked into other options because I've held a "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" attitude, and it is a simple enough task. But if I were to use an app like this, suddenly I have a huge added incentive to search for my flight statuses on google. I don't mean to imply that this is a bad thing. To the contrary, I think it is a smart business decision that adds a lot of value to all of the integrated google products for the user. I just found it interesting when I was trying to decide what the "value" was to google for a product like this.

localhost3000 14y ago

reminds me a bit of zazu

AndyKelley 14y ago

I am reminded about this scene from Wall-E: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohcwksrvDOg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohcwksrvDOg

mikk0j 14y ago

LOL. The closed captioning in the beginning of that demo video reads like a haiku from an emo kid: "Tear out your day / all that information is rainy days / actually needed." Not sure if it makes me trust Google's efforts to bring me "just the right information at just the right time."

dcaranda 14y ago
Nice catch. More gold from Google's automated closed captioning on their own promotional video: "dissented japanese underground you're done" "to the mountain tell you what internet xxx" (personal favorite) "fearsome evil" "graceland"
nixarn 14y ago
yeah I couldn't stop reading that text. I was wondering wtf the text was all about ^_^ ( http://i.imgur.com/IhOXd.png http://i.imgur.com/IhOXd.png )

xxiao 14y ago

is this the simplified igoogle? how am I supposed to use it? don't see it under my account anywhere.

jsz0 14y ago

I hate the thought of worrying about the future ramifications of my searches. For example if someone asks me to check the time of a sports ball game for them will Google Now nag me with sports scores I don't care about in the future?

jpwagner 14y ago
I'm constantly frustrated by this. I use incognito browsing way too often. Then when I come across something by accident that I do want in my history (either for searching through history later or because chrome occasionally crashes), I have to copy the link over to a normal-browsing chrome window.
- skeletonjelly 14y ago
  Can you not bookmark it within the Incognito session?
sp332 14y ago
It's not exactly convenient but it's possible to go to https://www.google.com/history/edit https://www.google.com/history/edit and edit your search history, in case this becomes more of an issue in the future.

g-garron 14y ago

Now they will even know what do I eat!. Google will know me even better than myself. I'm not sure I like the idea.

iamgopal 14y ago

I see it as a downgraded version of Google Wave(robots & gadgets). ( or in long term extension of mail )

CubicleNinjas 14y ago

This feels like its aimed at Siri, and if so I feel it misunderstands Siri's value. I don't want pushed content. I want light content that is pulled with my personal, minimal, request and without fuss. This is random content covered in fuss. I'll completely leave any real judgement until its release, but I can't help but wonder how long until I can "sponsor" a local card? Also, Google needs to pair down its services. Releases like these were once major announcements, but they're no longer covered because everyone knows Google's lack of focus may kill a service in a short time. These blanket services have really begun to overlap and I almost need a comparison chart of them just for Google's offerings.

drivebyacct2 14y ago
1. It's disableable, prioritizable and is mostly user driven out of the box anyway. 2. I don't know why you think Google would push this here. People like to act like Google is going to push ads on people, but they have no history. They've always been about unintrusive, (seriously now) helpful ads. It seems like this is just a hypothetical reason to position against Google Now right out of the gate. 3. Google is "pairing down". They cut dozens of things in March and Google+ has done wonders for unifying value and promoting integration across Google products. I don't even know how to address the last sentence, it's just blatantly hyperbolic.
- CubicleNinjas 14y ago
  1. Good news. 2. The term "helpful ads" is the problem. I don't get helpful ads. I get page clutter that is parsing my content. Google's business is advertising. They make the vast majority of their money by stopping me from doing what I want, and placing ads in my way. The evolution of the search results page shows this clearly as many cases about 80% of the screen real estate is covered in ad content. It is important to note that Android is not an altruistic effort to help humanity. They believe mobile will be the next wave of computing and need a new model for serving ads. Items like Siri worry them because a user skips Google and is provided no "helpful ads". To say they don't have a history of this is wrong. Search, YouTube, Maps, Mail, and Android itself are all heavily ad covered now and all signs point to this growing. 3. They're pairing down after they launched them. This is my concern. Devs adopted some of these services to watch them die. Now they've launched many new items which will be dead within 1 year. I'm not being hyperbolic. Then tell me: • How is Video different than YouTube? • How are Maps and Earth distinct? • Why does News exist when I can use the keyword news? • Where should I put my online content: Blogger, Orkut, Sites, or Google +? • Talk is very interesting, but why should I use it alone instead of Gmail Chat or Google Hangouts? • Panoramio, Google+, Picasa, or Orkut for sharing photos? • Fusion Tables looks fun, but why wouldn't it be better to launch a public Google Spreadsheet? Finally, Google has seemingly paired down the list of products on their product page, but most products aren't even listed! Where's play, drive, or any of the items they announced today. To say they don't have a problem here is drinking the kool-aid so hard you might not wake up.

freshfunk 14y ago

This is the killer app for Google Glasses. Get relevant information in your HUD throughout the day. Awesome.

pjscott 14y ago
I'm not sure. There's a big psychological difference between push and pull -- if you check your phone, then you'll pulling the information at your convenience, but if it gets pushed to you on a HUD, then that's potentially intrusive and distracting. I think the only way they could really make that work is to have a good way of telling when it's reasonable to push information to a Glass-wearer, and that's tricky. Definitely cool if they can figure it out, though.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

ondrae 14y ago

I have all kinds of questions about how they choose which information is most important about a user's geography, such as showing trains schedules when in the station. Did they take all of their Google Places categories and analyze which apps where being used more in what types of places? How do they decide where you are at in a city, where locations are all stacked on top of each other? I hope they open this up so we can add in relevant streams, mostly public safety info. p.s. I would love to work on these problems. City data is super interesting to me.

samrat 14y ago

So, is this Google's answer to Siri?

pawelwentpawel 14y ago

It would be really cool if this would have a rule-system programmable by user. Something like - "if I'm next to a good [type] restaurant show a card", "When I enter my flat, show me [last messages, friends updates, ..., n] etc. On{x} (www.onx.ms) seems to be doing it in a pretty interesting way. I'm pretty sure that merging those two ideas would create a very handy product.

masukomi 14y ago

maybe it's me but, with the exclusion of the sports scores "Google Now" really seems more like "Google Here".

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

ezekieldas 14y ago

Nearly all features note: 'Only shown if location services enabled'

egypturnash 14y ago

Isn't this exactly what Greplin pivoted to with Cue? Like, last week? Except Cue is an app that can be loaded onto any iPhone, while it's unclear whether Now is a part of the new version of Android, an app, or what. And if it's a core part of the latest version of Android, well, good luck getting that in your life without buying another phone.

dhughes 14y ago

I'd +1 it but ... no +1 button.

mattbirchler 14y ago

One thing I really like about Google is that if this is a hit, they will bring it to other platforms. Counter to what Google would like, this is one reason I feel comfortable sticking with iOS.

sthejo 14y ago

Good move Google, let the haters hate, Bring it on!

EzGraphs 14y ago

It's easy to dismiss Now as yet-another-notification-app. But as PG as said: Don't be discouraged if what you produce initially is something other people dismiss as a toy. In fact, that's a good sign. That's probably why everyone else has been overlooking the idea. http://paulgraham.com/organic.html http://paulgraham.com/organic.html The problem that Google is focused on is reducing the number of clicks required to get you relevant information now... from one to zero. It's a problem that Google Now might not solve, but somebody eventually will.

nashke 14y ago

This seems to be a basis for a future "Google goggles" product

supercopter 14y ago

Interestingly there's not a single word in the description about Android or Jelly Bean or Nexus or smartphones or tablets... Could this mean that Google Now is intended to be available across multiple platforms (including desktop environments)?