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I can't get Gemini to not cut me off mid-sentence and reply to only half of what I wanted to say. It doesn't reliably integrate with Google Maps. I can't trus

I can't get Gemini to not cut me off mid-sentence and reply to only half of what I wanted to say. It doesn't reliably integrate with Google Maps. I can't trust it for basic shopping tasks because it doesn't reliably evaluate stated criteria. I can't even ask it if a specific web store has a specific item in stock and trust the answer. Google hasn't gotten the bare-ass basics right. They're not about to "make apps irrelevant as a concept". > [W]e'll get another half-baked attempt at reskinning Chromium and/or Android. 100%!

joemazerino 5mo ago
This product is exactly how Google improves Gemini. For better or worse (I'd argue worse) Google will be putting these devices in classrooms and everywhere else to train Gemini.
- nobrains 5mo ago
  My take is related but different. I believe that Google believes the customer's for these "premium" Googlebooks are the kids who used Chromebooks all their school years, and are now graduating school, getting into university, or getting into their first job. Google is presenting them an option, that feels familiar, but is also premium. The next level. The big-boy upgrade. Familiar but Better.
  - rchaud 5mo ago
    Except that Chromebooks are widely reviled as cheap, laggy garbage plus a negative mental association with tedious schoolwork. If anyone buys one, it'll be in spite of the brand association.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
ajross 5mo ago
> I can't get Gemini to not cut me off mid-sentence and reply to only half of what I wanted to say. This kind of criticism is unpersuasive: "USENET and ftp are fine! Why do I need this monster 'mosaic' thing which needs 8MB of core just to try to see some buggy 'dynamic page' someone threw together where the server is always down anyway!" New technology is incomplete, rushed to market, inconsistently reliable and rapidly improving. News at 11! That doesn't mean Googlebook is going to take over the world. But no, you don't get to live in 2019 forever either.
- gumby271 5mo ago
  I would say we're reaching new levels of incomplete and rushed to market though. The original Google Search, Maps, Docs, etc. weren't feature rich, but what they had worked well. I'm not saying they were perfectly built, but they weren't falling apart to the degree Gemini and other Google products are. And Google gets to do this now, no one can compete or leave them, so why do anything well. When Google first added Gemini to Sheets, I tried it and it completely hallucinated transaction data on the bank statement I was testing it on. It's worse than incomplete, it's broken and dangerous. But Google gets to slap a disclaimer on Gemini that says "results may be fucked" and they get a pass to ship it. I have no expectation that Google can improve its new products since everything they've been doing is going in the opposite direction. You're not seeing pushback on embracing new technology, its purely about Google not being trusted to do things well.
  - ajross 5mo ago
    > I would say we're reaching new levels of incomplete and rushed to market though The year 2001 called, it was laughing hysterically and I couldn't quite make out what it was saying.
    - gumby271 5mo ago
      I think I'm too stupid to understand what point you're trying to make, sorry.
      - jaapz 5mo ago
        Youre looking at the past with rose tinted glasses.
        gumby271 5mo ago
        Were there features in original Google docs that would insert random garbage? I'm not saying those products didn't have bugs in 2001, but I don't recall them having features that were both barely functioning while also being touted as the most advanced amazing thing ever, and that's what modern Google is doing.

joemazerino 5mo ago

This product is exactly how Google improves Gemini. For better or worse (I'd argue worse) Google will be putting these devices in classrooms and everywhere else to train Gemini.

nobrains 5mo ago
My take is related but different. I believe that Google believes the customer's for these "premium" Googlebooks are the kids who used Chromebooks all their school years, and are now graduating school, getting into university, or getting into their first job. Google is presenting them an option, that feels familiar, but is also premium. The next level. The big-boy upgrade. Familiar but Better.
- rchaud 5mo ago
  Except that Chromebooks are widely reviled as cheap, laggy garbage plus a negative mental association with tedious schoolwork. If anyone buys one, it'll be in spite of the brand association.
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]

ajross 5mo ago

> I can't get Gemini to not cut me off mid-sentence and reply to only half of what I wanted to say. This kind of criticism is unpersuasive: "USENET and ftp are fine! Why do I need this monster 'mosaic' thing which needs 8MB of core just to try to see some buggy 'dynamic page' someone threw together where the server is always down anyway!" New technology is incomplete, rushed to market, inconsistently reliable and rapidly improving. News at 11! That doesn't mean Googlebook is going to take over the world. But no, you don't get to live in 2019 forever either.

gumby271 5mo ago
I would say we're reaching new levels of incomplete and rushed to market though. The original Google Search, Maps, Docs, etc. weren't feature rich, but what they had worked well. I'm not saying they were perfectly built, but they weren't falling apart to the degree Gemini and other Google products are. And Google gets to do this now, no one can compete or leave them, so why do anything well. When Google first added Gemini to Sheets, I tried it and it completely hallucinated transaction data on the bank statement I was testing it on. It's worse than incomplete, it's broken and dangerous. But Google gets to slap a disclaimer on Gemini that says "results may be fucked" and they get a pass to ship it. I have no expectation that Google can improve its new products since everything they've been doing is going in the opposite direction. You're not seeing pushback on embracing new technology, its purely about Google not being trusted to do things well.
- ajross 5mo ago
  > I would say we're reaching new levels of incomplete and rushed to market though The year 2001 called, it was laughing hysterically and I couldn't quite make out what it was saying.
  - gumby271 5mo ago
    I think I'm too stupid to understand what point you're trying to make, sorry.
    - jaapz 5mo ago
      Youre looking at the past with rose tinted glasses.
      - gumby271 5mo ago
        Were there features in original Google docs that would insert random garbage? I'm not saying those products didn't have bugs in 2001, but I don't recall them having features that were both barely functioning while also being touted as the most advanced amazing thing ever, and that's what modern Google is doing.