This is Another Reason Google Now is the Best

[The iGentleman]

Yesterday, I had a meeting at 8:30pm that was about 30 minutes away. Before the meeting, I received a notification on my phone that told me I needed to leave at 7:37 in order to be on time for the meeting. Lo and behold, with the traffic that Google Now saw and calculated, that turned out to be true. I left at 7:37 exactly (because I was curious how accurate it would be), and sure enough I got to my destination at about 8:25. I initially intended on leaving around 7:50 or 7:55 since it was only a 30 minute drive and rush hour is over at that point, but had I done that, I would have been late. Thanks to the heads up given by Google Now, I was on time.
In my opinion, that's what sets Google Now apart. I didn't have to be actively using it for it be useful. Other things out there like Siri, are only useful when I'm actively using it. So if I'm not using Siri, it's of no use to me, whereas even though I wasn't using Google Now, it still wound up being useful for me.

 

[Jb07]

Yesterday, I had a meeting at 8:30pm that was about 30 minutes away. Before the meeting, I received a notification on my phone that told me I needed to leave at 7:37 in order to be on time for the meeting. Lo and behold, with the traffic that Google Now saw and calculated, that turned out to be true. I left at 7:37 exactly (because I was curious how accurate it would be), and sure enough I got to my destination at about 8:25. I initially intended on leaving around 7:50 or 7:55 since it was only a 30 minute drive and rush hour is over at that point, but had I done that, I would have been late. Thanks to the heads up given by Google Now, I was on time.
In my opinion, that's what sets Google Now apart. I didn't have to be actively using it for it be useful. Other things out there like Siri, are only useful when I'm actively using it. So if I'm not using Siri, it's of no use to me, whereas even though I wasn't using Google Now, it still wound up being useful for me.

That's really cool, I'm not even going to lie.
I'm excited to use Google Now in the future.

 

[elpmas]

That's pretty crazy.

 

[The iGentleman]

That's really cool, I'm not even going to lie.
I'm excited to use Google Now in the future.

Yeah I was quite surprised at that also. I read about it doing that, but reading about it and me actually seeing it do it is totally different things. I was pleasantly surprised. If it's this good in its infancy, I can't way to see it as it matures. Google says there will be more cards added in the future, so I can't wait to see what they add. I'm hoping they add something by the time the next Nexus comes out.

 

[RyanF]

Congratulaons you made it to work on time just like the hundreds of thousands of other people that get to work on time everyday.

To be honest, that is really cool...but common sense would have told me that if it takes me 30 mins to get there, that I should probably give myself an extra 20 mins or so to account for traffic. I have a 30 minute commute to work as well, and I always leave at least 50 mins before I start.

But again that is pretty nifty. Sooner or later people won't have excuses to be late.

 

[The iGentleman]

Congratulaons you made it to work on time just like the hundreds of thousands of other people that get to work on time everyday.

To be honest, that is really cool...but common sense would have told me that if it takes me 30 mins to get there, that I should probably give myself an extra 20 mins or so to account for traffic. I have a 30 minute commute to work as well, and I always leave at least 50 mins before I start.

But again that is pretty nifty. Sooner or later people won't have excuses to be late.

It wasn't work, it was a meeting with someone. Furthermore, this was in the evening AFTER rush hour, when the traffic typically is gone. I make that drive all the time and there's no reason to leave 20 minutes ahead of time unless something happened. It does me no good to get to a meeting 20 minutes early. I prefer to be 5-10 minutes ahead and no more. My time is valuable, and leaving 20 minutes earlier than I have to for every meeting is not a viable option.

 

[RyanF]

It wasn't work, it was a meeting with someone. Furthermore, this was in the evening AFTER rush hour, when the traffic typically is gone. I make that drive all the time and there's no reason to leave 20 minutes ahead of time unless something happened. It does me no good to get to a meeting 20 minutes early. I prefer to be 5-10 minutes ahead and no more. My time is valuable, and leaving 20 minutes earlier than I have to for every meeting is not a viable option.

Oh I'm sorry I guess my time isn't valuable, according to what you just said.....oh brother.

And where do you live where you have no traffic at 8am? That's right towards the beginning of rush hour. Either way, common sense still tells you that things happen on the road, accidents, traffic, construction, detours. If it takes 30 minutes to drive somewhere you don't leave 30 minutes ahead of time.

You seem defensive. I didn't mean to insult you if I did. And for someone who doesn't have any spare time, why are you posting on a forum? Doesn't add up.

EDIT: My apologies thought you were talking AM. Even though I still leave 15 minutes early at least no matter where I go, I hate being late....either way sorry for the mix up. Like I said that's pretty cool. Although I don't think a feature like this deserves the title of this thread. Sort of seems like you just want to stir the pot.

 

[The iGentleman]

Oh I'm sorry I guess my time isn't valuable, according to what you just said.....oh brother.

And where do you live where you have no traffic at 8am? That's right towards the beginning of rush hour. Either way, common sense still tells you that things happen on the road, accidents, traffic, construction, detours. If it takes 30 minutes to drive somewhere you don't leave 30 minutes ahead of time.

You seem defensive. I didn't mean to insult you if I did. And for someone who doesn't have any spare time, why are you posting on a forum? Doesn't add up.

EDIT: My apologies thought you were talking AM. Even though I still leave 15 minutes early at least no matter where I go, I hate being late....either way sorry for the mix up. Like I said that's pretty cool. Although I don't think a feature like this deserves the title of this thread. Sort of seems like you just want to stir the pot.

I'm not saying your time isn't valuable, just we obviously value our time differently. I have meetings with various people frequently and can't afford to show up to every meeting 20 minutes early. That's all I'm saying. If I showed up to every meeting 20 minutes early every day, then that would equate to a lot of time wasted each day. For the time it would total up, I could have sat down at a restaurant and relaxed for an hour and a half.

Regarding the title, there have been a lot of comparisons of Google Now to other things like Siri and S Voice, so that's where the title stems from. People have gotten so wrapped up in the voice part of Google Now that they don't even mention the rest of it. This post is intended to show another part of it that nobody seems to be mentioning.

 

[jeffe]

I'm always blown away by how accurate google navigation is....Usually predicts my arrival time within a min or two before I even turn on to the main highway.

 

[zbarvian]

Google Now is definitely a cool feature but really is quite limited at the moment. I don't see why people compare Google Now and Siri, they are completely different services. Voice Search and Siri are way more akin.

 

[The iGentleman]

Google Now is definitely a cool feature but really is quite limited at the moment. I don't see why people compare Google Now and Siri, they are completely different services. Voice Search and Siri are way more akin.

When people discuss Google Now, for some reason they fixate on just the Voice part of it, even though that is just a small portion of what it is. Yes it currently has some limitations, but if the other Google apps are any indication, they'll be updating it often (Google has already said more features will be added). That said, despite its current limitations, Google Now is a MUCH better product than Siri. With my 4S, I can go a week and have only used Siri 2-3 times. With Google Now, even when I'm not actively using it, it winds up providing something useful throughout the day.

 

[zbarvian]

When people discuss Google Now, for some reason they fixate on just the Voice part of it, even though that is just a small portion of what it is. Yes it currently has some limitations, but if the other Google apps are any indication, they'll be updating it often (Google has already said more features will be added). That said, despite its current limitations, Google Now is a MUCH better product than Siri. With my 4S, I can go a week and have only used Siri 2-3 times. With Google Now, even when I'm not actively using it, it winds up providing something useful throughout the day.

Google Now is a completely separate feature than Voice Search. Google Now is not comparable to Siri. I am really intrigued by Google Now, though, and I'm sure it will continue to expand with its functionality.

 

[batting1000]

Siri gives you alternate routes in iOS 6 if there's a hold-up like traffic or an accident so what's the big deal?

 

[The iGentleman]

Siri gives you alternate routes in iOS 6 if there's a hold-up like traffic or an accident so what's the big deal?

Yeah but Siri doesn't give you a notification ahead of time to tell you that you need to leave early because there's a traffic delay on the shortest route. I should have known you'd show up on this post and try to minimize what happened.

 

[batting1000]

Yeah but Siri doesn't give you a notification ahead of time to tell you that you need to leave early because there's a traffic delay on the shortest route. I should have known you'd show up on this post and try to minimize what happened.

I'm not downplaying the feature, as it is neat, but doesn't Google Now have to learn the route before it can tell you when you should be leaving?

 

[John.B]

Unfortunately, my Android phone from work doesn't play nice with our corporate Exchange server, and some recurring meetings wind up getting moved by an hour due to a DST bug. So in this case, I would've been exactly 55 minutes late if I'd trusted Google to get me to a recurring meeting on time. But, sure, A for effort!

 

[Mac.World]

Siri gives you alternate routes in iOS 6 if there's a hold-up like traffic or an accident so what's the big deal?

That kind of data will only exist, if a user has ios6 installed and IF they are on a 4S or 5 and IF they have the option to provide data to Apple enabled. I'm not sure but I also think the user needs to have navigation on in order to provide data about traffic to all other users.

Google traffic is fairly accurate, but it can take upwards of 30 minutes before a traffic jam is reported into the system. Any construction area is pretty accurate all the time. I have done a bit of driving in San Francisco, Cupertino and LA. If Apple can be more accurate with their speed in reporting I will be impressed and will use the new iphone for turn by turn navigation instead of my S3. That's the nice thing about having both phones. Whatever feature is better is what I will use.

 

[batting1000]

That kind of data will only exist, if a user has ios6 installed and IF they are on a 4S or 5 and IF they have the option to provide data to Apple enabled. I'm not sure but I also think the user needs to have navigation on in order to provide data about traffic to all other users.

Google traffic is fairly accurate, but it can take upwards of 30 minutes before a traffic jam is reported into the system. Any construction area is pretty accurate all the time. I have done a bit of driving in San Francisco, Cupertino and LA. If Apple can be more accurate with their speed in reporting I will be impressed and will use the new iphone for turn by turn navigation instead of my S3. That's the nice thing about having both phones. Whatever feature is better is what I will use.

Seems you didn't read my next post.

I'm not downplaying the feature, as it is neat, but doesn't Google Now have to learn the route before it can tell you when you should be leaving?

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I never rely on any navigation's ETA or when I should begin. Might have been accurate x amount of times, but nothing can gauge true traffic or obstacles. What if your traveling in an unfamiliar area, who's gonna tell you when a draw bridge suddenly opens up? And here in NY, traffic changes by the minute.

 

[The iGentleman]

I'm not downplaying the feature, as it is neat, but doesn't Google Now have to learn the route before it can tell you when you should be leaving?

No it doesn't. It calculates the best route on it's own, and let's you know when to leave based on the travel time with traffic. If the best route has too much traffic, it may suggest a longer route with less traffic if it will get you there faster.

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That kind of data will only exist, if a user has ios6 installed and IF they are on a 4S or 5 and IF they have the option to provide data to Apple enabled. I'm not sure but I also think the user needs to have navigation on in order to provide data about traffic to all other users.

Google traffic is fairly accurate, but it can take upwards of 30 minutes before a traffic jam is reported into the system. Any construction area is pretty accurate all the time. I have done a bit of driving in San Francisco, Cupertino and LA. If Apple can be more accurate with their speed in reporting I will be impressed and will use the new iphone for turn by turn navigation instead of my S3. That's the nice thing about having both phones. Whatever feature is better is what I will use.

And it would require them manually putting in the address to were they're going, or at the least initiate the search for a route. In the end, that doesn't help if you're just finding out about the delay when you're walking out the door.
As for what you said about the traffic reporting, I guess it depends on the area. My experience with Google's traffic data has been very good. They tend to be very accurate, and it gets reported fairly timely. It's gotten me past many a traffic jam.

 

[batting1000]

No it doesn't. It calculates the best route on it's own, and let's you know when to leave based on the travel time with traffic. If the best route has too much traffic, it may suggest a longer route with less traffic if it will get you there faster.

Ok, so what if I forget to put in where I'm going ahead of time? It's not going to calculate anything. (That is, if it doesn't learn my route.)

 

[daveathall]

This looks awesome, I had not heard of it before so did a bit of Googling (how apt) Im looking forward to this.

Good review here;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-app-reviews/9428755/Google-Now-review.html

 

[nuckinfutz]

Yay

You've just done the same thing that my Navigon GPS would do. Calculating how long it takes from point A to point B isn't that difficult.

You're trumping a feature that really isn't that cool. I can do this on my own easily. Not groundbreaking

 

[The iGentleman]

Ok, so what if I forget to put in where I'm going ahead of time? It's not going to calculate anything. (That is, if it doesn't learn my route.)

Well if you don't have anything scheduled, then it won't know you have something scheduled. Now something like work, you don't have to schedule, it learns that on it's own. As for meetings, if you schedule the meeting (I use exchange), then your phone will know about it. When I put the meeting in my calendar on the computer, since I use exchange it shows up in my phone (which it would do that if I were using Google's calendar too). Then when it comes close to time for the meeting it will starting checking routes and let you know when to leave.

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Yay

You've just done the same thing that my Navigon GPS would do. Calculating how long it takes from point A to point B isn't that difficult.

You're trumping a feature that really isn't that cool. I can do this on my own easily. Not groundbreaking

So your Navigon will alert you ahead of time, before it's time for you to go and let you know you need to leave early so you can be on time, and then tell you the time you should leave? I've NEVER heard of a GPS that can do this. Kindly provide me with this GPS of the future that you have, that can notify me ahead of time, letting me know of delays so that you can leave early. I'd love to know what GPS you have that I don't even have to input my destination and it automatically calculates time with traffic, and notifies me early that I need to leave ahead of time so I can be on time. Yes, let me know what GPS that is that does that. I'll be waiting.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Putting the smart in smartphone.