5 ms·

My favorite feature of Google Now is that when I've searched for a place/address in Chrome on a PC, it automatically pops up with proposed navigation in a card

by eitally 14y ago

My favorite feature of Google Now is that when I've searched for a place/address in Chrome on a PC, it automatically pops up with proposed navigation in a card on my phone. That has saved me so many times from the "dammit, I can't remember the street number" while moving from house to car. p.s. This is one widget where allowing it to use the maximum space possible makes a lot of sense, especially when traveling internationally (traffic, places, weather, currency, timezone, social/birthdays, calendar events, "things nearby".

cheald 14y ago
I agree, but it's worth noting that you can go to Navigation and recent searches on your PC should appear in the dropdown list of places to choose from, so it's not Now-specific.
- jervisfm 14y ago
  What device are you using? I just checked on my phone and I didn't see a tab for recent searches available. What I found though were starred places. I like the ability to be able to see my search history. How can you get to that from the navigation app ?
  - kailuowang 14y ago
    I am using 4.2.2. Click the navigation icon at the bottom and the direction page shows up and then the recent search history menu automatically popup underneath the end point input. If you doesn't, you can click the start point and then click the end point again, it might take a bit depending on your connection speed.
  - cheald 14y ago
    Nexus 4 running a CM 10.1 nightly. If you open Maps, click the "Directions" button (not nav, sorry), then it'll ask you what you want directions to, and your recent searches will be there.
    - nooneelse 14y ago
      They also pop up for me when I tap to put a cursor in the search box at the top of the map app.
timroman 14y ago
Eh, I find it kind of annoying, a notification for every restaurant, city, country, etc that I look up and have absolutely zero intention of traveling to. It has potential to be useful, but it needs to get smarter first. Maybe I spend too much time searching Maps randomly.
- prawks 14y ago
  Probably. It would have to make a lot of assumptions to infer your intention when searching, at least in Maps, etc. current form. A browser plugin to enable/disable Now tracking seems like it could be handy, however. Though then if you forget to turn it back on you lose what eitally mentioned: "I forgot X, oh, thankfully Now caught it". But doesn't Google Maps have a history feature that syncs across devices? Now seems like it might be polluting that space.
  - jweese 14y ago
    > A browser plugin to enable/disable Now tracking seems like it could be handy, however. I've gotten into the habit of using incognito mode for most searches, and only staying logged in for things I think I'll want Now-based information for, like directions or information cards.
kailuowang 14y ago
I've been using the Google map's star feature for this type of address transferring - star a location on PC and it will show up on your phone in seconds, you just need to unstar it later if it's not an address you want your map to remember.
- treeface 14y ago
  I don't even need to star anything. If I type an address into maps.google.com on my PC, as long as I'm signed into Google it will be in my Maps app search history.
rogerbinns 14y ago
The problem with this is their false matches. For example I looked up cffi (C foreign function interface) library. They decided to add a stock ticker of the same letters despite me never clicking on any stock links. Any lookups of other things give the same results, such as looking up news stories (eg a plane crash starts tracking flights of the same number) or how many calories there are in a McDonalds burger (starts showing nearest locations). I don't remember the example now but I've had it decide other searches are really for sports teams. (Annoyingly they also don't consider Formula 1 a sport.) The biggest problem is the functionality is non-deterministic. You can't be sure if a card will appear for flights (eg you look one up you expect to meet tomorrow), and you get unintended junk at other times. The reason is that Google are taking a superficial approach, almost just doing string matching. They aren't going deeper and figuring out more context (eg did I mean a stock, which day do I care about for a flight, is there any chance I'm looking for a McDonalds versus looking at corporate financials).
- badgar 14y ago
  > You can't be sure if a card will appear for flights In my experience, Google Now finds my flights in my Gmail 100% of the time. For at least a dozen flights across the US. And for some airports (SFO is one, unsurprisingly) it even has the terminal and gate information ready! Google Now makes the "arriving at the airport" experience better every time for me.
  - rogerbinns 14y ago
    I had some friends arriving at SFO from Dubai a few weeks later, but had no way of telling if Now would show the right flight on the right day since there is no card about future flights. Similar story for the cross country flight they took a few days later. In order for me to depend on Now, I need to know I can trust it and it only got one of the flights right. There is no way to know if it will do the right thing in the future unless you keep checking and having a backup plan.
    - badgar 14y ago
      That's because it's Google Now, not Google Planner. It's for giving you information relevant to right now. You don't plan to use Google Now for something, you check it when you want information relevant to you at the moment. If you stop trying to make Google Now into a personal organizer, you'll enjoy using it more.
mierle 14y ago
This card was my idea back when I worked on Google Now. I'm still proud of it.
- julianz 14y ago
  It's really a wonderful thing. I haven't yet figured out the specific magic combination of things that will guarantee it popping up on the phone though - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I really love Now but it needs to be omnipresent.
fakeer 14y ago
It would have a lot lot better feature if Android could manage battery usage for things like GPS in a low power mode[1] even if it was on all the time and would only activate in the background intermittently or AGPS fetches some region of interest. Though for this to work efficiently AGPS shall have to be more accurate than it is as of now - at least available on Android phones. [1]Sth like Bluetooth Low Energy (it requires additional h/w though)
- rolandal 14y ago
  Have you heard of or taken a look at Gimbal SDK? http://www.gimbal.com http://www.gimbal.com - it consumes about 3% battery for always on GPS/location...

by eitally 14y ago

cheald 14y ago

I agree, but it's worth noting that you can go to Navigation and recent searches on your PC should appear in the dropdown list of places to choose from, so it's not Now-specific.

jervisfm 14y ago
What device are you using? I just checked on my phone and I didn't see a tab for recent searches available. What I found though were starred places. I like the ability to be able to see my search history. How can you get to that from the navigation app ?
- kailuowang 14y ago
  I am using 4.2.2. Click the navigation icon at the bottom and the direction page shows up and then the recent search history menu automatically popup underneath the end point input. If you doesn't, you can click the start point and then click the end point again, it might take a bit depending on your connection speed.
- cheald 14y ago
  Nexus 4 running a CM 10.1 nightly. If you open Maps, click the "Directions" button (not nav, sorry), then it'll ask you what you want directions to, and your recent searches will be there.
  - nooneelse 14y ago
    They also pop up for me when I tap to put a cursor in the search box at the top of the map app.

timroman 14y ago

Eh, I find it kind of annoying, a notification for every restaurant, city, country, etc that I look up and have absolutely zero intention of traveling to. It has potential to be useful, but it needs to get smarter first. Maybe I spend too much time searching Maps randomly.

prawks 14y ago
Probably. It would have to make a lot of assumptions to infer your intention when searching, at least in Maps, etc. current form. A browser plugin to enable/disable Now tracking seems like it could be handy, however. Though then if you forget to turn it back on you lose what eitally mentioned: "I forgot X, oh, thankfully Now caught it". But doesn't Google Maps have a history feature that syncs across devices? Now seems like it might be polluting that space.
- jweese 14y ago
  > A browser plugin to enable/disable Now tracking seems like it could be handy, however. I've gotten into the habit of using incognito mode for most searches, and only staying logged in for things I think I'll want Now-based information for, like directions or information cards.

kailuowang 14y ago

I've been using the Google map's star feature for this type of address transferring - star a location on PC and it will show up on your phone in seconds, you just need to unstar it later if it's not an address you want your map to remember.

treeface 14y ago
I don't even need to star anything. If I type an address into maps.google.com on my PC, as long as I'm signed into Google it will be in my Maps app search history.

rogerbinns 14y ago

The problem with this is their false matches. For example I looked up cffi (C foreign function interface) library. They decided to add a stock ticker of the same letters despite me never clicking on any stock links. Any lookups of other things give the same results, such as looking up news stories (eg a plane crash starts tracking flights of the same number) or how many calories there are in a McDonalds burger (starts showing nearest locations). I don't remember the example now but I've had it decide other searches are really for sports teams. (Annoyingly they also don't consider Formula 1 a sport.) The biggest problem is the functionality is non-deterministic. You can't be sure if a card will appear for flights (eg you look one up you expect to meet tomorrow), and you get unintended junk at other times. The reason is that Google are taking a superficial approach, almost just doing string matching. They aren't going deeper and figuring out more context (eg did I mean a stock, which day do I care about for a flight, is there any chance I'm looking for a McDonalds versus looking at corporate financials).

badgar 14y ago
> You can't be sure if a card will appear for flights In my experience, Google Now finds my flights in my Gmail 100% of the time. For at least a dozen flights across the US. And for some airports (SFO is one, unsurprisingly) it even has the terminal and gate information ready! Google Now makes the "arriving at the airport" experience better every time for me.
- rogerbinns 14y ago
  I had some friends arriving at SFO from Dubai a few weeks later, but had no way of telling if Now would show the right flight on the right day since there is no card about future flights. Similar story for the cross country flight they took a few days later. In order for me to depend on Now, I need to know I can trust it and it only got one of the flights right. There is no way to know if it will do the right thing in the future unless you keep checking and having a backup plan.
  - badgar 14y ago
    That's because it's Google Now, not Google Planner. It's for giving you information relevant to right now. You don't plan to use Google Now for something, you check it when you want information relevant to you at the moment. If you stop trying to make Google Now into a personal organizer, you'll enjoy using it more.

mierle 14y ago

This card was my idea back when I worked on Google Now. I'm still proud of it.

julianz 14y ago
It's really a wonderful thing. I haven't yet figured out the specific magic combination of things that will guarantee it popping up on the phone though - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I really love Now but it needs to be omnipresent.

fakeer 14y ago

It would have a lot lot better feature if Android could manage battery usage for things like GPS in a low power mode[1] even if it was on all the time and would only activate in the background intermittently or AGPS fetches some region of interest. Though for this to work efficiently AGPS shall have to be more accurate than it is as of now - at least available on Android phones. [1]Sth like Bluetooth Low Energy (it requires additional h/w though)

rolandal 14y ago
Have you heard of or taken a look at Gimbal SDK? http://www.gimbal.com http://www.gimbal.com - it consumes about 3% battery for always on GPS/location...