I definitely have to agree. Siri is only useful in those times you actually use it (for me that's once or twice a week). Google Now is useful regardless of if you are actively using it or not. It will be interesting to see what other features they add when Key Lime Pie comes out later this year.
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No Google Now doesn't add extra drain on the battery. I can attest to that from actual use of it. As for saying you can just say "Google" before a search, the whole point in Siri is to not have to remember commands. If you have to think about if Siri can answer the question or not, and if you should instead do a Google search, then it has come up short. A person shouldn't have to give that much thought to what they are about to ask. They should be able to just ask it, and let the phone figure it out. You shouldn't have to remember to say "Google" in front of certain things, but not in front of others.
The Google Now cards feature is a constant drain on the battery, this is an indisputable fact. It is constantly checking your location and constantly downloading in the background. Unless you are asserting that there is a separate source of electricity that powers these features besides the battery, I don't see how you can argue it doesn't add extra battery drain.
The argument being made here, isn't that Google Now is better than Siri because it provides the same information in a more efficient manner, the argument being made is that those Google Now information searches are something that Siri
can't do.
That argument is incorrect. All the video shows is that Google now defaults to a Google Search, while Siri defaults to a more local search before resorting to Google. If it can't find the answer locally, it asks if you'd like to do a Google Search.
For example, on Google Now, if you ask "What's my girlfriend's email address?"...it will do a google search for "What's my girlfriend's email address?" which completely fails.
If I ask Siri the same question, and Siri doesn't know who my girlfriend is, it will ask, "Who is your girlfriend?", I will provide the answer, and Siri will give me her address. From then on, Siri will know who my girlfriend is, and will not ask again.
Now for the opposite, if I ask Google Now, "Where is that Egyptian museum in San Jose?"...it does a Google Search and shows me.
If I ask Siri the same question, it will respond, "I don't know that. Would you like to search the web?", and when I confirm it will provide the exact same answer as Google Now.
However, I have the option to simply say "Google where is that Egyptian museum in San Jose?"...and it will provide the exact same answer, with exactly the same speed as Google Now.
In this example, both Siri and Google Now give exactly the same result, only Siri will give an additional prompt of you don't say "Google" or "Search the web for" first. In the "What's my girlfriend's email address?" example, however, Google Now falls flat, as it has no intelligence, and simply performs a Google Search.
As I said earlier, it is simply a front-end to a dictation of Google Search.
