Google has been known to be a company with innovations. When it comes to competing with Apple, Google is giving more freedom if compared to its adversary's walled garden. And this is also true for Google Now, its intelligent personal assistant
Google Now offers an "augmented reality" search that can be creepy, but impressive at the same time. First released in July 9th, 2012, Google Now is not actually all that revolutionary in the sense of being surprising. Google Now was meant to enhance Google Voice Search for Android Jelly Bean that was first introduced on Google I/O 2012.Originally named "Majel" after Majel Barrett, the wife of Gene Roddenberry, and well known as the voice of computer systems in his Star Trek franchise; it was also codenamed "assistant".
In a way that could be part of the reason that this assistant is appealing: it doesn't try to impress you, it just works silently in the background, in more or less the way you would expect it to. It does not reply you with a 'character' like Siri that some find offensive and funny. The part that clearly disturbs some people about Google Now is the data collection involved in making it work: it collects a broad range of information about the user and their activity from their search history, calendar, e-mail, web services they're signed into, their location via GPS, posted materials and so on, and then uses that to show them the information relevant to what they are doing or where they happen to be.
There's no question that this is invasive if you're concerned about your privacy, and some users undoubtedly think that it's not worth the trade-off, and choose to keep the information to themselves. But to others, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
To implement the aspect of the Google Search application. Google Now recognizes repeated actions that a user performs on the device (common locations, repeated calendar appointments, search queries, etc.) to display more relevant information to the user in the form of "cards". The system leverages Google's Knowledge Graph project, a system used to assemble more detailed search results by analyzing their meaning and connections.
Specialized cards currently comprise: activity summary, boarding pass, concerts, currency, developing story and breaking news topics, events and reminders, Fandango ticket service, flights, birthdays, hotels, location reminders, movies, nearby attractions, events and photo spots, new albums/books/video games/TV episodes, appointment, packages, places, public alerts and transits, research topics, restaurant reservations, sports, stocks, time at home and reminders, traffic and transit, translation, weather, website updates, "what to watch" and Zillow's real estate information.
Are there ways Google could use this information that users may not like? Of course there are. Just like any information you provide to other internet and online services. But if you trust Google your information, you may as well believe them. Some may choose to see Google's ambitions in this area as evil and world domination by revealing "exactly how much data and information Google actually has about its users' routines and daily lives." But some others think that the company's goal remains the same: to provide services that encourage users to spend more time on the internet and produce more data that improve Google's search and/or advertising algorithms.
Google Now vs. Siri
Google has updated their its Search app for Apple's iPad and iPhone to include Google Now. But with Apple's Siri already entrenched, do Apple users really need Google Now?
When both are compared side-by-side, Siri has showed improvements in iOS 7 by answering 79 questions better although exposed in noisy environment. It also got a higher mark then the previous version for its ability to interpret questions, but a lower one for its failure to answer them correctly.
The biggest change in Siri over the past year has been its reliance on Bing, Wolfram Alpha, and Wikipedia over Google.
Google Now also showed an improvement from last year. The voice assistant fared better than previous versions at understanding questions in a noisy environment and interpreting the questions. Google Now earned better grades than last year across the board; though, its ability to answer all questions correctly was down from last summer.
As a conclusion, both Google Now and Siri correctly understood 94 percent of total queries regardless of environment (noisy or quiet). In terms of accuracy of answer, we determined that Google Now accurately answered and understood queries 81 percent of the time, compared to 83 percent for Siri. But when factoring in all queries, both Google Now and Siri answered 79 percent of queries.
Google Now and Apple's Siri have a lot of features in common. But where Siri really makes its mark is in doing things for you, such as setting up a new calendar event or creating a reminder for the future. Siri is also able to place calls, launch apps and play music. And if you are really into social networking, Siri can make updates to Twitter or Facebook. One great thing about Siri is that it is always a button press away. Even if you are in another app, you can simply hold down the home button and Siri will pop up.
Google Now takes a different approach to the personal assistant. Armed with Google's Voice Search, Google Now doesn't concentrate on fetching information on command. Rather, it attempts to anticipate your needs and bring up information before you ask for it. It works silently.
Google Now depends heavily on Google's apps. Without them, Google Now won't be quite as useful.
And since the two personal assistant have different approach, both can't be comparable down to the core. Siri is more into productivity while Google Now is more into conveniency.