Google Now has been one of our favorite features in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and I’m pretty sure we’re not alone in that thinking either. Google’s continued to update and improve both the feature in general, as well as all the backend services. However, today our very own Chris Davies and sister site SlashGear sat down with Google’s Matias Duarte to talk Google Now, Project Glass, and more.
SlashGear enjoyed a few moments to sit down with Duarte to talk about Google Now. The end result being that it along with Google‘s upcoming Project Glass not only share the same DNA and have tons in common, but both very well could end up being the future of Android as a whole. Obviously that’s getting ahead of ourselves as smartphones will play a daily role in our lives for a long, long time – but the thought certainly is an interesting one that has our minds wandering.
For those that don’t know, Matias Duarte came over to the green side of Android and Google after originally being an integral part of HP’s WebOS. Duarte’s main focus is to improve Android and the look, as well as support a design-led attitude out of the product development teams. Duarte currently has been spending most of his time and focus on Google Now, and it certainly shows. This feature is slowly but surely becoming front and center, and the bread and butter of Android.
“Google Now is a new paradigm”
When asked whether Google Now is in grooming to be the new Android homescreen, Duarte stated he feels “it has the potential to be.” Even mentioning it’s the first place he goes when using his Android smartphone or tablet. “For me, Google Now is the place I go to all the time, and that’s why it was so important for us not to create a new location to bring assistance, but to go to the place where people were going to start searching the web, or searching their phone, with Google, and make that the place where these assisted cards could appear” he explained.
“It’s kind of a new paradigm, and one which I think does speak to the future of this very helpful type of computer interface, as opposed to the current start screens where you have to make all the choices, it’s almost like a computer control panel in a rocket ship where there’s lots of icons you have to punch-punch-punch.”
The above comments are what also bring us into the image you see above, that being Project Glass. Google’s new augmented reality headset is also being led by the same principal, and in essence is exactly what Duarte stated above. Saying Now speaks to the very future of what we all consider a computer interface. We won’t have start screens, or panels and pages to flip through on Google Glass. Everything will be futuristic in a sense thanks to Google Now and voice actions and beyond.
Google Now and Project Glass differ from traditional search results because while it calls upon the same engine, it takes a much more definitive stance on delivering us the answer. Instead of the traditional Google where we get a range of answers in multiple links, now they’re focusing on the right answer — a much bigger task.
In the end Google Now, Project Glass, and eventually Android will all fit into and enhance our daily lives and routines, rather than demand our full undivided attention. The entire interview and round table with Google’s own Matias Duarte by SlashGear is extremely exciting, and certainly worth the read. Head to the via below and enjoy more pictures, quotes, and everything else he had to say.
[via SlashGear]
Duarte sounds like the perfect’ chirpy little spokesmodel for Google.
And I’m pretty certain I don’t think much about the ever increasing pervasiveness of google in “our lives”
The article reads like an advertisement-or an omen-of a brave new world in which convenience and the illusion of being informed are really a different way of presenting the fact that we will be increasingly monitored and profiled in ever greater detail down the road.
waaah,waaah! Socialist idiot!
Vivkghl, What about Neumenon’s comment makes him(or her) a socialist? I, for one, like comment about the “illusion of being informed”. If anything, the comment sounds anti-socialist to me. However, I think it should be noted that all these gadgets which might be used to babysit their users are only effective on babies. Those whom various parties really want to watch for whatever reason already know how to avoid detection. Therefore, this all comes down to targeted marketing and advertising, which is what Google has been about from day 1. In any case, until a product like this is utterly transparent, no pun intended, in that one can forget they have it on and noone around them will notice that they do, this stuff is pure novelty. This concept didn’t stick with gamers in the 90s, and it won’t stick now unless they can pack it into a contact lens that requires no maintenance, uses no battery, feels good to wear, and is easier to put in/on than bluetooth headset. BTW, look for market saturation to hit with smartphones & related toys in the next 10 years or so. As that day approaches, toys like this will also have to be dirt cheap to get traction. Kind of a cool gadget anyway.
“illusion of being informed” You guys are equivocating over the meaning of the word “informed.” Google Now is only meant to inform you of when your next train leaves or when a UPS package arrives. You guys make it sound like Google Now is trying to be a Dali Lama.
some people are so paranoid. The fact is the people who are so worried about being tracked usually are the ones who have the most to hide. The part about having to be dirt cheap was a good point though.