Why Apple's Siri is a disruptive technology:

[dkf]

This is because Siri transforms computers from “passive” participants in the search process to “active” ones and in so doing urinates all over Google’s model. Instead of taking queries and then passively spitting out 10 blue links—which you then have to mine for the correct information—Siri actively goes and gets the correct information, herself. If you don’t give Siri the input she needs, she’ll ask you directed questions until you do. If the goal of your search is a specific action (like buying a movie ticket, reserving a table or calling a taxi), Siri can skip all the steps Googling would require and just do it.  At least that is the idea.  Siri is still quite limited in what it can do, but the writing is on the wall.

When a technology comes along that eliminates the need to follow previously-required processes, we call it disruptive. There’s no other way to slice it.

Many classical tragedies have ironic twists at their center, and this one is no different: When they launched Android against the iPhone, Google and Schmidt attacked Apple’s homeland and turned a longtime friend (Steve Jobs) into a mortal enemy. And now, with Siri, Jobs will have his posthumous revenge. Because make no bones about it: despite Jobs’ original claims that the Siri acquisition was not about search, Siri and the ecosystem of Siri-optimized APIs sure to evolve in its wake represent a bigger mortal threat to Google’s search business than anything Google has ever faced.

http://seekingalpha.com/?source=email_rt_article&ifp=0#article/305863-thanks-to-siri-google-s-glory-days-are-numbered/

http://m.techcrunch.com/2011/11/06/schmidt-right-google’s-glory-days-numbered/?icid=tc__art&

[HopeHoops]

1. I want my 5 1/4" floppies back.

[JackintheGreen]

2. Hie thee away, technocrat

Give me cassette storage or give me death!

[hlthe2b]

3. along with your 8-tracks?

;)

[HopeHoops]

4. Well shit. I've got both casette storage and 8-tracks. And I use a LaserDisc player.

Just watched Blazing Saddles (again) on LaserDisc.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. I used the bigger ones,

They were 8 inches, at least.

The 5 1/2 inchers held 4-10 times the data.

[HopeHoops]

6. The DEC Rainbow used 8" floppies. They were a shitload slower.

[Jazzgirl]

20. I want dual disk floppy drives!!!!!111!!!

[Fumesucker]

7. Herself?

It's not self-aware and it's not female.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. I'll miss the unexpected tangents. Searches often lead to the most unexpected places.

[dkf]

10. Oh I'm sure you will still be able to do it that way.

Interesting comments in the seeking alpha link on how this could hurt google's pay to play model or whatever they call it.

[LiberalAndProud]

21. I'm sure I would be able to, for a time at least.

But I will probably opt for the most efficient path to the information I seek. Google will necessarily respond to the competitive pressure. Unexpected and entertaining tangents will come in the form of "surprise me" links and I almost never opt for those.

[pnwmom]

11. I agree! I wouldn't trust SIRI to know what I want, except in a very limited way.

For one thing, I often don't know what I want until I see it.

[dkf]

13. Well you might try Siri first to save time, then move to Google.

But Google has a lot of dead ends and useless links. Sometimes it's so frustrating to wade through it.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. The technology has been around for a while

Not even all that novel or disruptive. All Apple did was make it cute.

If history is guide, anytime now Apple will start filing suits against the examples of prior art.

[dkf]

12. What it needs is eyes.

Bing's search may have been significantly better for all I know but who uses it?

[eShirl]

14. Isn't it basically just Eliza with voice recognition & synthesis + a search engine?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processing

[ProgressiveProfessor]

18. Pretty much. The actual technology has come a long way since Eliza

[alc]

15. I'm worried that it will become disruptive

On the bus. In restaurants. In theaters. In meetings. On planes...

[FarCenter]

16. At least part of the capability is through querying Wolfram Alpha

How the speech front end interfaces with Wolfram Alpha and other sources doesn't seem to be completely disclosed.

[PoliticAverse]

17. There's a bigg difference between "What time is it ?" and "What's the best restaurant in New York ?"

[Xithras]

19. Ippudo NY

Decided by factoring the number of Yelp ratings against the customer scores. According to Yelpers, Ippudo NY is the best restaurant in New York.

That's the way a computer would answer the question anyway. Everything is a statistic. Break the question down into hard numbers, do a little math, and return the result.

It's effective. Kinda sucks if you like French food though...