20 ms·
Google’s “Conversational Search” Goes Live On Chrome
- jonknee 13y agoThe conversational aspect was one of the differences between Google Voice Search and Siri (though it doesn't matter if you have conversation abilities if you fundamentally don't work, but that's another debate). Interesting to see the progress in this space.
- d0vs 13y agoNot working for me. It displays "No Internet connection." Edit: see http://crbug.com/242861 http://crbug.com/242861
- danpalmer 13y agoI think the service is being hit pretty hard. I'm getting the same.
- arkitaip 13y agoI don't think that Google can be slashdotted ;)
- Achshar 13y agoIt's not google.com. Chrome has speech recognition service that goes to google's servers. And that service is being hit hard, not google.com.
- jfoster 13y agoYou're probably right. It's Chrome's speech recognition service that is having this issue. It's also affecting other sites.
- Shooti 13y agoFrom the reports that might be geographical.
- rogerchucker 13y agoI'm in India now and keep getting "No Internet connection" as well.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- RyanMcGreal 13y agoRemarkable. Chrome asked my permission to use my laptop's microphone and was then off to the races. I followed the examples in the post but added, "What is his dog's name?" The first result was the Wikipedia entry for Bo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_(dog) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_(dog)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- wiradikusuma 13y agoMy Chrome is Version 26.0.1410.65 and "Google Chrome is up to date," but I don't see it when opening www.google.com. I'm in Malaysia.
- d0vs 13y agoYou have to use Chrome 27.
- drivebyacct2 13y agoGr. I'm on Linux/dev/28 and no dice...
- agildehaus 13y agoChrome 27 is out on Windows/Mac and seems to be required. You'll need to upgrade to 27 manually if you're on Linux or wait for your distribution.
- VikingCoder 13y ago"What's my name?" "Where am I going?" (If you use Calendar.) "Who founded Google?" (I just thought this was impressive.)
- Newky 13y agoTo me, this would feel more natural in something other than the search bar of Google. When we make a new search, the thought process is that it is a separate and new search. Although we all know that searches are by no means stateless, they were separate, unrelated questions in my mind previous to this. This makes searching more like a conversation (hence the name) and means that the UI to me does not fit this style. There is no record of what you searched before this. Imagine if your chat client was displayed in the same context. Google is only including it in this way so that it gets the huge usage of its search engine, but to me a more chatty UI would make this more obvious.
- sebastianavina 13y ago> To me, this would feel more natural in something other than the search bar of Google. like in google glass?
- staticfish 13y agoWould someone tell me exactly what makes this feature "controversial"? I am seeing this exact same headline everywhere. Is there any merit to it, or is it the standard linkbaity headline we've come to expect.
- bockris 13y agoDid you misread the title?
- staticfish 13y agoDamn.
- hnriot 13y agoConversational, not controversial
- nivla 13y ago>"controversial"? I am seeing this exact same headline everywhere. I think you may be misreading it. The title says "conversational" not "controversial".
- mtgx 13y agoI misread it the first time, too. It's conversational.
- hnriot 13y agoThis is coreference analysis with voice input backed by an ontology. Google have done a good job pulling together these technologies.
- nos4A2 13y agoNo one is asking this, but why is this chrome only (Disclaimer: I am a Firefox user)? is there a specific part that is tied to the native browser code (microphone and speakers can be accessed though web languages)? [Note] the tone of the question is curious and not accusatory
- Recoil42 13y agoWell, yes and no. It would be possible through Firefox, but the feature (through WebRTC) is very recent, and low-level -- you'd have to go through a prompt, then they'd probably have to connect with sockets, do a request, and come back with the final results. Conversely, Chrome has had x-webkit-speech -- a high-level text-to-speech feature -- since 2011. The code's already all there, everything just needed to be linked up and presented a little better. They'll probably come out with Firefox support in a while -- it just takes more work.
- mladenkovacevic 13y agoThere was a session at I/O called "More Awesome Web" which seemed to imply that a web audio API (which enables live microphone input) and a web speech API (which enables voice-recognition driven apps) are both currently only supported in Chrome. Here is a slide from that presentation: http://www.moreawesomeweb.com/#32 http://www.moreawesomeweb.com/#32 (just use the right arrow to progress through the slides). If that's what's holding up speech recognition for other browsers then hopefully these APIs can become more widely supported, but at the same time I don't think the demand for browser speech recognition is there yet. It makes sense on your phone, but bending over your desktop or laptop in order to talk to your computer somehow doesn't seem right yet.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jordan_clark 13y ago1.) Rasberry Pi 2.) USB sound card 3.) Analog mic splitter: (plus other things of course) - Run small mic's and speakers to most commonly used rooms in house. Star Trek computer search enabled. Missing link: send results to (x) screen.
- chrisrh 13y agoSpeakers to go along with the mics as well, to hear the spoken response.
- dekhn 13y ago.... why not just use a mobile phone clipped to your shirt (since that's all a star trek communicator is).
- JRobertson 13y agoCastleOS has demos that appear to be successfully demonstrating that the Kinect makes a fairly cost effective voice receiver that can cover an entire room.
- pwf 13y agoDo you have a link to this? Edit: Nevermind, I read that as CentOS...
- tannerc 13y agoNeat, but what's the practicality for the average user? Obviously there are universal benefits for the disabled, but what comes next?
- swalsh 13y agoThats cool... but i don't want to talk to my computer while in my cube. Useful in my car though.
- untog 13y agoThe tech that powers this is astounding. But am I the only one that really doubts this voice-powered future everyone seems to be aiming for? From Siri to the Xbox One and Google Glass, there seems to be an overall assumption that voice is the interface everyone will be using- but didn't we assume the same when dictation software first came out years ago? That we'd all be dictating our documents rather than typing them? The only place voice control feels natural to me is when I'm in a room by myself. So that rules out the office, public transportation, and my home, except at rare moments. I'm actually quite happy about that- the last thing I want is to be at work surrounded by people talking to their computers.
- lawdawg 13y agoVoice search is a natural extension (and time will tell if its an ideal one), but I think the thing that is most interesting with all of this is the steps these companies are making in natural language processing.
- __--__ 13y agoYou mean like this -> http://www.theaudeo.com/?action=technology http://www.theaudeo.com/?action=technology ?
- shangaslammi 13y agoAgreed. Lip reading via the camera would be much nicer to use (although probably an order of magnitude more difficult). :)
- skarmklart 13y agoOr sign language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesture_recognition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesture_recognition
- bad_user 13y agoMind reading would be even better. Until then, writing words with a keyword is in many cases still the best way to provide input, without feeling awkward or without bothering others. And speech isn't weird in the same way that touch-screens felt weird for some of us at first. Because touching the screen of your gadget does not annoy other people. Also, did anybody notice how awful speech recognition is for non-Americans? And they just got in the habit of internationalizing things properly, now we're going back to square one, except for the fact that learning to pronounce things with an American accent is much harder than writing words in English, so devices will annoy the heck out of us non-Americans, even if we know English.
- russellsprouts 13y agoHeads up, the conversational aspect only works if you have Search History enabled.
- agildehaus 13y agoWorks fine for me, search history disabled.
- jordanthoms 13y agoI can do voice searches, but the conversational aspect (asking "how old is he?") isn't working, and I can't seem to get hotwording to either. Is this still rolling out?
- ameister14 13y agoyou might need to update chrome
- Lewton 13y agosame, updated chrome to newest version, single searches work as they should but the conversational aspect is missing
- qqg3 13y agoI get this problem too. Understands stuff just fine but semantic and conversational stuff is broke.
- Siecje 13y agoWhy is Google so afraid of making a standalone application to run on desktops and not in a browser? Then you wouldn't need your browser open to use "OK Google"
- dragonwriter 13y ago> Why is Google so afraid of making a standalone application to run on desktops and not in a browser? There is a big difference between "doesn't see the value in the added cost" and "is afraid of". > Then you wouldn't need your browser open to use "OK Google" Chrome supports running in the background on startup (and prefers to do so), so conceptually there is no reason anything that can be done in Chrome that doesn't require on-screen UI couldn't be done without needing any application "open" (at least, without the user taking the step of opening an application.) Seems to me that, both from a strategic perspective and a UX perspective, that's a more natural progression for conversational search than a separate standalone desktop app.
- mikeash 13y agoGiven how much work they've put into web apps and stuff like NaCl, I don't think Google sees requiring a browser as any sort of downside.
- nthitz 13y agoAsked it "Who Made You?" And Google Replied: "To paraphrase Carl Sagan: to create a computer program from scratch, one must first create the universe." :)
- gromy 13y agoIt'd be nice if queries starting with "go to..." would automatically go to the first result, ala I'm Feeling Lucky.
- spankalee 13y agoMe: "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow" Google: "Did you mean airspeed velocity of an unladen European swallow" Me: "Yes" Google "According to Wikipedia, Yes are an English rock band who achieved success with their progressive, art and symphonic style of music." D'oh. If you're going to drop in an easter egg that asks a question, assume the user who finds it will actually answer it.
- ElliotH 13y agoDespite numerous attempts I couldn't get it to recognise my british accent saying 'Air speed' as anything other than 'Ass speed' or 'add speed'
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y agoAny time I said "four" it heard it as "full". I can't really pronounce Rs, so ended up with "fouurrrrrr" before it recognised it.
- ElliotH 13y agoOddly, it seems more accurate on my phone through Google Search/Now.
- cheald 13y agoAre you logged into your Google account on Chrome? I know that there's voice personalization on the phone versions. I'd expect them to bring that to the browser, too.
- riffraff 13y agocompare and contrast: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=What+is+the+airspeed+velocity+of+an+unladen+swallow http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=What+is+the+airspeed+ve...
- shellmayr 13y agoI'm not exactly an expert on search machine technology, so I'd be grateful if someone was so kind to help me out here: I did a "conversational search" asking "what's an amazing voice" and Google returned a definition with a Youtube video of a woman singing. One of the comments simply says: "Amazing voice!" Why is this listed as a definition? What's happening here?
- Raphael 13y agoThe comment defines that video as an amazing voice. Google's knowledge graph has included this opinion.
- soemarko 13y agoCute. Not something I'd ever use, but cute. Overall it works, but it seems it can't pick up the word "one" and "reviews". Or it's me who can't speak those words right. Kept getting "Xbox ones you" and "Xbox won the fuse"
- varjag 13y agoTry "Beam me up, Scotty" :)
- fernandotakai 13y ago"who are you" is good too
- varjag 13y agoHah! Also, "what's my name"
- g2e 13y agoTry asking "What's your name?" or "How are you?"