Google (Photo credit: Daniel Morris)
It’s so obvious to just about anybody that Google has got to be forevermore innovative in its dominant specialty which is Google Search. You know, the thing that you do on the Internet whenever you stuck and need some answers to your particular problems (i.e., searching the web). If Google snoozes, plenty of newcomers will overtake Google by being innovative.
Just recently, we have seen waves of innovations that might do just that! Siri from Apple is one of those waves that might undermine Google’s future! We know Google’s bread and butter has got to be Adsense and Adwords — these two technologies are relying on Google Search or else things will be moot for Google’s bottom line. But why Siri and similar technologies? Siri and similar technologies promise a step up artificial intelligence kind of technology which might be more attractive than just plain smart search engine. With this in mind, we can see why Google might not like the idea of Siri to be the future search engine, because Adsense and Adwords will become irrelevant and bringing in less revenues when Google Search becomes less popular.
Of course, as now, we might think Siri, Evi, and others are just cosmetic effects for inferior search engines when one compares such things against Google’s effective search engine. Nonetheless, one must not forget that Siri and the likes are possibly more awesome since it might be applicable for more than just your traditional computers. People don’t exactly use laptops and desktops on the go as much as how they are with their smartphones, and this is why Siri is much more attractive on smartphones than plain old search engine. Searching for something through voices can be less painful than typing in things on tiny screens that you often find with tiny smartphones. And we know nowadays smartphones matter since these things are even more proliferate than laptops and desktops; for entirely different purpose which is surprisingly quite pleasant to many people — they’re going to be used on the road!
What’s more is not all about voice activation but more of the novelty of having a digital assistant. Of course, as now Siri and the likes might not be exactly how people expect these technologies to be since the intelligence of these technologies aren’t yet quite sophisticated, but giving times I think these technologies will be smarter and then Google really has to worry then. Imagine how something as Siri can be inside cars, houses, TVs, computers, and more.
It’s that obvious Siri can assist with more things than just being iPhone 4S’s assistant. And we know we can use Siri or Evi to find things on the web. What’s more is that Siri allows iPhones owners to execute tasks on their iPhones. The artificial intelligence is now becoming more apparent as the virtual/virtue of the future of all things digital and real life. Instead of imagining something much far out, we can just take a look at what we have already imagined and see why artificial intelligence of Siri and the likes will be so successful that Google will be tremble with fear. It’s all about the Jetsons. The lifestyle where robots serve their masters is indeed quite appealing! Siri and the likes can certainly be installed onto robots! Aren’t our cars becoming more robot-like?
One thing which I’m uncertain about the business model of Siri and the likes is how will the advertising business model fit into this technological picture? Certainly, it’s quite awkward for Siri to spew commercials right? We can’t really have or like that right? I know I won’t! Anyhow, I think eventually someone might find ways to squeeze in profitable business models for Siri and the likes.
Even Siri and the likes might not yet be profitable for the bearers (i.e., the founders or companies of these technologies), Google is not going to sit idle around for something or someone to usurp its bread and butter. This is why I’m not surprised to read a TechCrunch’s report Google’s Plan To Compete With Apple’s Multi-Platform Siri? Google “Assistant” which has reported that Google is working on a technology which goes beyond Siri to compete against Siri and the likes. I think TechCrunch’s report mentioned they called Google’s Siri counterpart as Assistant. Perhaps this name might be up for trademark troll? Google might just as well better call it as Google Assistant, because the plain Assistant is either too common of a word to trademark or someone probably has used it within a computing field already. Apple’s recent iPad trademark legal battle against Proview might be the best lesson for Google’s Assistant?
Anyhow, TechCrunch reported that Assistant might emphasize in helping real people solve real problems. It certainly sounds to me as if Assistant is a better type of artificial intelligence design. After all, this technology designs to solve people’s real problems, right? TechCrunch reported that Google might allow third party developers to hook into Assistant’s API to create novel things. If this is true, then it’s certainly that Google is taking an opposite direction of how utilizing something similar to Siri in general, because Apple is tightly guarding its Siri technology to a point that one can say three words, wall gardened experience.
So, in a sense, now it’s on Apple! Even though Google has not yet released Assistant, it seems that Apple might better be making Siri as prolific as possible for the market, or else Assistant is going to do just that, stealing the spotlight from Siri eventually! Luckily for Siri, I think Apple is moving in the direction where Siri can be found to be coupled with even more technologies. One example would be how Arstechnica reported Siri will be coupled with Mercedes so drivers can use Siri to command Mercedes to do things (e.g., turning on radio, playing mp3s, GPS-ing).
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I don’t know what to make of Google Play just yet in practical sense, but it’s available now! Nonetheless I dabble on… It seems to me Google Play is how Google turns up the heat in competing against Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iTunes. Google Play seems to boast of allowing Googlers to access all of their media in one place, but the beautiful thing about Google Play is that Googlers can access all of their media in one place online. So, as long a Googler has an Internet connection and necessary equipment (e.g., laptop, iPad, iPhone), he or she can basically browse their media with Google Play.
