The Exceptional iPhone SIRI

 

Siri, or something similar, would become the norm for interfacing with smart phones and in doing so it would define the future of local search (and everything else). Well it seems to have succeeded on the everything front but just not on the local search front. The Siri natural language interface is a metaphor for interaction that will supplant the need for typing and can provide a hands free way to interact with smaller devices when typing is dangerous (ie driving) or awkward (ie all the time).

It works incredibly well and as John Gruber noted: “I wouldn’t say I can’t live without Siri. But I can say that I don’t want to.” It is that good.

It is hands down the best way to speedily create and send text messages regardless of whether you are driving or sitting. It is the best way to get driving directions detailed on the iPhone Google Map app. It is the best way to search the web whether you want to use Google, Yahoo or Bing. In fact it even fixes what was so miserably wrong with voice search in the Google app.

Its ability to understand what you want and what you are saying is uncanny. Even with background noise. I am a convert and while I will most definitely use it while driving, it may very well become my preferred interface for many other things as well.

It truly is a harbinger of a new level of functionality for interacting with your phone (and any small device for that matter). I won’t leave home without it.

EXCEPT FOR LOCAL SEARCH.

Siri can either interact with other apps or it can answer some things directly. For example you can say “Text Aaron I will be late picking you up” at which points it interprets your instructions, performs a voice to text translation, double checks its accuracy with you, understands that you want to text and then sends the note via the iMessage app. With some data types it will just answer you inside of the Siri environment. That is the design for interaction with both Wolfram Alpha and Yelp.

Danny Sullivan noted yesterday that when searching for local businesses, Siri accurately provides a list from Yelp but then doesn’t allow you to call the location, look at reviews or even get more details. For whatever reason, Apple and Yelp have decided to limit the functionality of the local search in such a way so that it is essentially useless, forcing a user to a different data source for the information.

Having marvelled at Siri’s capability, it is easy to imagine saying to Siri – “make a reservation at the Ho-Ste-Geh restaurant for 2″, “read me the reviews for the Rennas” or even “Add the Robins Nest’s contact details to my address book”. But the local search capability, doesn’t do any of that.

There are alternatives for a user of Siri to get local information. You just need to use the web search functionality of Google, Bing or Yahoo (use one or all three) by saying “Look on the web for a nearby restaurant” or “Google breakfast restaurants”. On the plus side, it no longer takes that 6 touches that Google voice search required to make a hands free call. Now when doing a local recovery search on Google it takes just one touch after the voice interaction to complete the call. And Siri does such a significantly better job of getting the search right the first time than Google voice search ever did. You wonder where Siri has been hiding.

But in limiting the functionality of the built in local search functionality, Apple and Yelp are missing a chance to change user behaviors. In not changing user behaviors from the gitgo they may miss the opportunity to break the habit later on. Natural language voice search on the smartphone is a long game, and the 1 million iPhones so far sold are just a drop in the bucket of the market. The real game is yet to come.

There is every reason to believe, seeing what else Siri can do, that increased local search functionality will arrive. But regardless of whether this was Yelp’s choice or Apple’s, from where I sit, this is an opportunity lost to win a battle in a long war.

Google+ APIs With Search

In the spirit of releasing early and often, Google released some of the new features that you requested.

Search for it

Last month Google launched search in Google+, and now it’s available in the API. You can search for public posts using the new activities.search method by sending the following HTTP request:

GET
https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/activities?query=cookie%20recipes&orderBy=best&key=[yourAPIKey]

This method searches across the body and comments of public posts. It returns the following JSON encoded output (excerpted for brevity):

{
 "kind": "plus#activityFeed",
 "title": "Plus Search for cookie recipes",
 "updated": "2011-09-30T16:57:34.479Z",
 "id": "tag:google.com,2010:buzz-search-feed:x4rIYTKpR7NZCL8Id8RHXQ",
 "items": [
  {
   "kind": "plus#activity",
   “id”: “123”,
   "title": "You have to try these out.",
   "object": {
    "objectType": "note",
    "content": "I’m baking halloween cookies!",
   },
   {
   "kind": "plus#activity",
   “id”: “456”,
   "title": "Cookies",
   "object": {
    "objectType": "note",
    "content": "Cookies and milk for dinner. Don’t judge me.",
   },
 ]
}

You can search for people by using the people.search method:

GET https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/people?query=vic%20gundotra&key=[yourAPIKey]

This searches across public profile information including fields such as name, bio, location, tag line, and description.

The rest of the conversation

Google +  first API release let you retrieve public posts. We’ve now added ways for you to see how people are publicly engaging with those posts — you can find out who reshared a post or who +1’d a post, and you can read the comments on a post.

The new method people.listByActivity supports retrieving resharers and +1’ers by sending the following HTTP requests:

GET https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/activities/{activityId}/people/resharers?key=[yourAPIKey]
GET https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/activities/{activityId}/people/plusoners?key=[yourAPIKey]

And comments can be retrieved by the new comments.list and comments.get methods:

GET https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/activities/{activityId}/comments?key=[yourAPIKey]
GET https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/comment/{commentId}?key=[yourAPIKey]

Google Maps Design Evolution

The start of a comprehensive visual redesign for Google Maps founded on three key principles: focus, elasticity, and effortlessness. This week Google continuing to implement that philosophy by improving and evolving a few key features.

Perhaps the most notable change is an update to the styling and color of  iconic pins across all Google properties. This change reflects our interface’s recent design evolution, introducing a more harmonious visual relationship between the on-map markers and the map itself.


On-map controls are also now more visually aligned with the rest of our design system. Together these changes reflect our recent efforts to reduce unnecessary clutter and give greater priority to information on the map.



In the header we’re also introducing more prominent buttons for Directions and My places integrated into an elastic interface that expands and contracts to best fit your browser window size.

Putting all of these changes together you get:

We hope you find this a welcome update making Google Maps more functional, effortless, and enjoyable. This is just one part of the many design updates that will continue rolling out across Google Maps in the coming weeks and months, so keep an eye out for more!