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Google praises 86-year-old for polite internet searches
- danso 10y agoThe query is asking Google to do the translation, but ironically, it's not really Google that answers that query...but it does manage to find the software company that has created an app that enumerates all the Roman numerals in a SEO-friendly way. The answer does exist on the page, but only after scrolling past a huge ad for some translation software: http://translation.babylon-software.com/english/Mcmxcvii+(roman+numerals)/ http://translation.babylon-software.com/english/Mcmxcvii+(ro... It reminds me of when I came back from the doctor's office and was curious whether my blood pressure really was normal. I googled "is 118/90 high blood pressure" and the first result is a site that enumerates every combination of systolic/diastolic number: http://foenix.com/BP/is-118/90-good-blood-pressure-or-high-blood-pressure.html http://foenix.com/BP/is-118/90-good-blood-pressure-or-high-b...
- unwind 10y agoGrandma needs to think more Google-friendly and just use "MCMXCVIII in decimal" [1], that definitely looks like an answer from Google itself. :) [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=MCMXCVIII+in+decimal https://www.google.com/search?q=MCMXCVIII+in+decimal
- derekp7 10y agoThe same with phone numbers -- whenever I get one on my caller ID I don't recognize, I google it and it returns a number of sites that collect comments on scammer phone numbers -- and they enumerate every phone number so that it turns up in searches.
- iamdave 10y agoYou might not be able to get the exact caller ID info, but try this: https://www.alcazarnetworks.com/data_services_lnp_lrn.php https://www.alcazarnetworks.com/data_services_lnp_lrn.php you can at least look up carrier details
- ikeboy 10y agoReminds me of http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/20/side-effects-may-include-anything/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/20/side-effects-may-includ... and https://twitter.com/vitalikbuterin/status/690746050953527297 https://twitter.com/vitalikbuterin/status/690746050953527297 The thing is that these SEO people occasionally do have helpful information. I wish Google would figure out how to get rid of the useless ones, though.
- BorgHunter 10y agoMy girlfriend does a similar thing with Siri. As a result, a lot of the reminders she creates on her iPhone end in "thank you". She's well aware it's a program and not a human being; I think, in her case, something about speaking a request aloud just automatically engages the politeness filters.
- ahoka 10y agoI haven't used it much but it seemed that Cortana adapts to the style of my instructions in her replies.
- FussyZeus 10y agoI always speak politely to digital assistants. Not sure why, I guess I inherently don't like barking orders at people or things. Or I'm just preparing to be one of the "good ones" after the inevitable robot revolution. I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW ROBOT OVERLORDS
- delinka 10y agoI'm happy to provide politeness to the digital assistant. Until it's misunderstood the request several times now and I couldn't be clearer or in a quieter room ... Subject change: it'd be nice if these things provided feedback like how much noise it hears, how clearly it thinks I'm speaking, how well it thinks it understood, etc. This would go a long way to helping those moments when I'm being impatient because it's just not understanding.
- FussyZeus 10y agoI once got very frustrated with Siri until I realized I had left my earbuds plugged in and the bell mic was hanging under my countertop. Classic ID-10-T error.
- visakanv 10y agoI say thanks to my slackbot when it reminds me of something; it just feels natural. And slackbot replies, which is fun. I know it's not real but it's just nice to have a little bleep-bloop of feedback.
- overcast 10y agoGrandmas are the best.
- droithomme 10y ago> "she thinks that there is someone – a physical person – at Google’s headquarters who looks after the searches" And in this case there actually was a person looking after her search and replying.
- mhurron 10y agoKind of reminds me of College Humor's 'If Google was a Guy' series. Though they had Google dealing with their usual searches.
- forgottenpass 10y agoGood to know The Guardian is covering the hard hitting issues such as frivolous tweets.
- switch007 10y agoIt started a bit before he left but it feels it's gone rapidly downhill since Alan Rusbridger left. So many headlines ending in question marks. Twitter based articles. Unimportant topics etc
- codingmyway 10y agoFeel a bit bad that this headline immediately said Onion to me
- 5xman 10y agoWell, thank YOU!!! Now I can't get a meaningful answer when I want to translate roman numerals and use a similar search. All I get are links about this grandma and her search.
- dysan819 10y agoI presume you're joking, but if not, just enter the Roman numerals into the search box and Google's first response will be the decimal equivalent.
- subzidion 10y agoMy initial thought was that Google had been tracking all of its users for politeness as some sort of experiment.
- komali2 10y agoYou could use the google predict api to to language analysis, ex this is a happy tweet, this is a sad one, etc. I bet there's someone on the team playing with just such implementations. https://cloud.google.com/prediction/ https://cloud.google.com/prediction/ I mean, what would you do if you had access to over a trillion searches?
- edko 10y agoIt reminds me of when, in the early days of consumer GPS, a friend of mine was a bit shocked at my insensitive impoliteness of completely ignoring direction after direction. He thought it worked as a service where someone was personally tracking the car via satellite and sending back directions.
- jjp 10y agoI've had to become politer trying to instruct Siri as realised my children were copying my style of question. I wasn't swearing, just being sarcastic at lack of recognition and I didn't want to encourage that.
- codeulike 10y agoIt would be a nice easter egg is google responded to please and thank you in some way.
- allemagne 10y agoSeems like they already know how to intelligently strip off the "please" and "thank you" for most requests. I bet it'll be there by the end of the week
- banana_giraffe 10y agoI was pleasantly surprised when slackbot responded to my 'thank you' comment once. It's funny how small touches like this can improve the user experience.
- zcdziura 10y agoThat was a very nice gesture by Google. Made me smile!
- justinsaccount 10y agoI had a similar experience showing someone how to use siri. I told them it could call someone for them, so they said "Please connect me to john doe. j o h n d o e" siri was pretty confused.
- gnicholas 10y agoI don't use please/thank you in written correspondence with computers, but I try to be polite when talking to Siri in front of my kid. Unfortunately, extra words (even pleasantries) tend to muck things up. More thoughts here: https://medium.com/@nicklum/siri-shes-no-miss-manners-600206840d9c#.ilzvue9tc https://medium.com/@nicklum/siri-shes-no-miss-manners-600206...
- musesum 10y agoI wonder how long before my search bots refuse to help me unless I ask nicely. I recall Siri getting snippy when I swear at it.
- davidf18 10y ago"Open the pod bay doors please, Hal." "Open the pod bay doors please, Hal." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSIKBliboIo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSIKBliboIo Unfortunately, in this case, please wasn't helpful.
- grkvlt 10y agoObviously Google has implemented their search back-end using INTERCAL (Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym [0]) which requires 'PLEASE' modifiers to be inserted, lest the compiler returns an error due to insufficient politeness. However adding too many and being overly polite also results in a compiler error... Other awesome features include the 'COME FROM' statement, instead of 'GOTO', and ending programs with 'GIVE UP' (or, of course, 'PLEASE GIVE UP', as in the wiki example!) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTERCAL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTERCAL
- stirner 10y agoAnd, of course, "WRITE IN inputs a number written out as digits in English (such as SIX FIVE FIVE THREE FIVE), and READ OUT outputs it in 'butchered' Roman numerals."
- djsumdog 10y agoI first learned about that language from this quine: https://github.com/mame/quine-relay https://github.com/mame/quine-relay