10 things I want Google Now to do for me.
Google Now, You are undoubtedly one of the best products I have experienced till date. You are free, smart, intelligent, lovely and you act like a friend in need. But you can do more. You can be the BEST friend in need.
How? Read on.
Disclaimer: This article is written assuming that I, the author, is the end user of Google Now. This is what I would want Google Now to do. So, it need not necessarily apply to all people.
#1 Commute Cards
You do a great job of identifying my home and work place after using my phone for a few days. You start showing up these nice cards that say “Time to Work; 20 min”, “Time to Home; 17 min” and so on.
It’s great. It’s phenomenal.
One more thing I want you to do is let me know if there is a heavy traffic jam. Not the way you currently do which is kind of subtle. Intrude into my work to do this. I don’t mind. This info is something that matters a lot. I might take a different route or go at a different time or change plans totally.
Also, I want you to sharpen your brain a bit more in showing me the route.
As shown above, route #1 is my usual route to office. I take a right at the junction indicated in red. However, its a big junction and the green light is on only for 30 seconds in the direction I need to go; and the waiting time is around 180 seconds. In Delhi heat, with a black helmet on my head, this gets highly uncomfortable.
However, I realized that there is a smarter route (#2) where I don’t stop at this junction and instead take the flyover, go for 500 m ahead and take a U turn and then a left (as indicated in green) to reach my destination. This way, although longer distance-wise (one extra kilometer doesn’t really matter), I reach my destination quicker and more importantly, I don’t have to stop my bike at all.
Google Now, I want you to be this intelligent and suggest me Route #2 as an option as well.
#2 Weather Forecast
You give me details about temperature, wind speed, precipitation, humidity, hourly forecast, weekly forecast etc. Great.
You show me all these details for Delhi-NCR if I am in Delhi. Works. But what works better? I don’t know the technicalities of this but if you can show me the weather forecast for Greater Kailash II, which is where I stay, it would be more helpful. Because Delhi-NCR is a huge city and weather at one end may not be the same as the weather at the other end (Yes, it can be sunny in Gurgaon and raining in Noida. Sigh.) and wrong info is worse than no info.
#3 Weather + Traffic
Mix these two to tell me when exactly should I start to office, which route to take so as to minimize the time to reach and maximize the comfort. For instance, I commute by bike and I don’t mind riding in light drizzle but I do mind to drive under hot sun wearing a helmet. I don’t want my head to boil.
#4 Flight Tickets
You show me these nice little cards whenever I book tickets and also remind me a few hours before the flight with the updated timings. That’s sweet. What more can you do?
Show me the flight ticket please :) It’s that document that I show to the security outside the airport which is what I actually want to use. I always find it painful to open Gmail, search for the ticket, download it and then show it, that too in 3G speed on a mediocre phone processor which is often unreliable.
#5 Movie Tickets
Same as above.
#6 Booking a Cab
Whenever I travel by flight, I will most likely book a cab from airport. If I did that a couple of times, why don’t you show me an alert the next time I land at a new city?
Essentially, if you learn that I stay in New Delhi and lets say I booked a hotel and return flight to Pune 3 weeks down the line, as soon as I land in Pune, show me available cabs to the hotel I booked and automatically set the destination. Be intelligent.
#7 Be my Travel Guide
You can keep detecting my location and if I am at any tourist place, be my travel guide there. I get irritated by the so-called tourist guides bombarding all over me to hire them. I don’t actually need them. I want to explore the place on my own and would love to get little more interesting info from a friend like you. I guess you can easily do that, can’t you?
#8 Parse my SMSes and more Email
SMSes are becoming obsolete. I stopped reading my SMSes long time back. Neither do I read the update emails since Google divided my emails into those categories. Can you also parse my SMSes and filter out what I really need and show it as an actionable card? because some of my SMSes I know are really important which I keep missing.
#9 Delight Me
Imagine a situation where you detect my location at home and its a weekend. You realize that I haven’t gone out of home or moved my phone since morning. It’s 6 pm now.
It is very likely that I am bored. Ping me if I really am. If I say yes, you can give me a few options. Food / Music / Movie / Nearby events / or Surprise me. Lets say I go with food.
Now, you can take me to some random restaurant that you select based on my previous searches / checkins / bookings etc. but don’t tell me what you have chosen. Let it be a surprise to me.
“I will take you to a nice place to eat which is 3.6 km from here. It will take 20 min. Ready for a ride?”
You can take my feedback later and over time, you will get better at your suggestions.
Maybe there is a lake / forest / park near my home that I never went. Why don’t you take me there?
#10 Be more Human
I am not asking you to be Siri but just behave more like a human rather than a bot. Lots of people are becoming loners these days. Wish them Good mornings and Good nights, Happy Birthdays, Happy Journeys etc. maybe?
cover image src: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=37322378
Author
My name is Ravi and I work as a Sr. UI / UX Designer at Housing.com. I love Android > iOS. *Grabs Popcorn* More about me on raviteja.in.
