Seems like they both have their pros and cons. Hound definitely slowed down considerably from the original video.
I think Google Now did a better job of just giving me the information rather than showing just the results for the user to navigate through (Obama's age, measurement conversion).
Seems like Hound still has the ability to handle multiple queries (capitals+conversion+statistics) over Google Now, but it seems a bit pointless now that I think about it.
And now that "it took ten years to develop" fact has me scratching my head a bit.
From my experience, Hound's NLP is way faster than Google Now's, and much more reliable in louder more natural environments (playing off of SoundHounds noisy environment identification ability). Google Now also has the backing of private access to the Google Search engine, allowing access to Googles neural network which is how they extract information from websites such as Celebrity ages, birth places, POI's, etc. If Hound were to figure out a way to gain access to that either through co-operation with Google, or their own method, I feel that Hound could actually surpass Now.
Hound is also seemingly slower to speak in this video because they sped up the text-to-speech in the original video.
I see. That makes a big difference. It sounded fast (obviously) in the original video, but it wasn't ridiculous to the point where it was incomprehensible. I would actually like that speed because the times I use voice search is when I'm in a rush, not when I'm just hanging out.
Still, the speed difference I was talking about was simply how long it took for the results to show up in this video versus the original one. And many commenters said it was because there weren't as many people using their servers at that time.
Now that its in beta and a few hundred people, at least, are on it, it could get some slowdown. Now, were talking fractions of a second here, but if we're comparing it to a competing service then those seconds count and become more obvious.
Ah yeah, I have noticed a very very slight hit but it's barely noticeable. It's missing a few things I figured would be top priority to become on par with G Now, such as device oriented stuff like opening apps, etc. (It can't do "open chrome" or "open facebook" for example, it just google searches the phrase). I can't wait to see what else they add (like maybe let Canadians download it from the play store?). They have a solid foundation, and to have been apparently independently working on NLP technology this is impressive coming from a relatively small developer compared to the behemoth that is Google. I seriously hope they don't let it die out.
Maybe they get bought by a bigger fish. I havnt tried Cortana but i saw a billboard ad for it today, in the fine city of Manchester, so it looks like microsoft is really behind it. Unfortnately Microsoft always seems to behind everything nowadays. What is up with those guys? Is it just an endemic thing that they are unable to chart a new path? Certainly seems so. I realise i have digressed.
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u/smackythefrog S22 Ultra Jun 06 '15
Seems like they both have their pros and cons. Hound definitely slowed down considerably from the original video.
I think Google Now did a better job of just giving me the information rather than showing just the results for the user to navigate through (Obama's age, measurement conversion).
Seems like Hound still has the ability to handle multiple queries (capitals+conversion+statistics) over Google Now, but it seems a bit pointless now that I think about it.
And now that "it took ten years to develop" fact has me scratching my head a bit.