How useful do you find Google Now?

[omnius]

For those of you who have it, how much do you use it and how useful do you find it?

 

[NightAngel79]

Extremely useful. I use it all the time

 

[omnius]

Extremely useful. I use it all the time

Do you find you need to have background data and gps enabled a lot to get the most out of it? How does using its features impact your battery life?

 

[h4x0rj3ff]

o i love Google now! as soon as i get a new phone on jellybean i will love it even more! it shows me the football scores lol i use it mostly for that and the weather on my N7. and the voice actions like setting alarms <~~~ love that feature!

 

[nickdalzell]

I used Google long before I actually started liking Android. currently it's the fastest loading search engine, which is great for older hardware. Bing comes as a close 2nd but has a lot of ads that slow searches down. however, I still miss the old days of Excite, Lycos, Infoseek and Alta-Vista. I used to use Dogpile long before Google and found it extremely useful since it often searched other search engines at the same time, guaranteeing results

 

[jefboyardee]

oops

 

[pool_shark]

The only reason I use Google now is to check the score of the Browns.

What? You don't really think I'm going to watch them do you?

 

[kristalsoldier]

Not very useful. Aside from weather, don't find much use for it - at least as of now-

 

[NightAngel79]

Do you find you need to have background data and gps enabled a lot to get the most out of it? How does using its features impact your battery life?

I get great battery life and I've never not used Google now on this phone so not sure how much battery it uses

I always leave data and gps on as well

 

[OutOfPhase]

I use it all the time with GPS and data always on. It is almost like it read's your brain. When I travel it remembers where I stayed and when I get back into the area it automatically gives me directions to the hotel. It learns your daily activities and creates cards to help you with them.

 

[nickdalzell]

having data, wifi, and gps on is negative and changes nothing of my battery life. it's the same with that all on as it is with wifi only on or in airplane mode. on my device the screen uses the most out of the battery so if it's on standby as it often is (mostly my data use is on tablets, not my phone) I can get a couple days out of it. gps doesn't affect battery life as it's always on by demand. if nothing is using the gps the service is frozen and the gps icon doesn't show. it will only use the gps (and the battery with it) when any app demands location data. I do however turn my phone in 2G mode and that does make it more stable and a bit better on battery demand (3G causes my phone to phantom boot or freeze up)

 

[jefboyardee]

oops

 

[huaren]

I use google every day, good doc, gmail, group. it's very helpful, but I still have some backup tools such ad Dropbox for files.

 

[nickdalzell]

i'll have to get a Nexus 10 to be sure but overall I find Android a lot laggier and just not up to par with the performance and UI smoothness of Apple iOS. it seems to crash often and slow down at times, although I have managed to tweak it a little and improve it considerably. I find Android to be a superior smartphone platform but as far as tablets go it lacks a lot. that being said, it remains a lot cheaper to replace the broken phone that runs Android. but as for Google, I use it because the search engine has very little to load making it fast on any device to do general searches on. other sites have tons of flash or ad content making them laggy on any tablet or phone to use. I never use the widget. I found it an unnecessary RAM hog since all it does is load the search you type in the default web browser anyway, so I cut out the middle man and launch the browser and search from there

my only criticisms for Google lately is how they often place results that lead to crappy sites like askmefast.com or fixya.com where you can't even see the content without jumping through hoops. often the exact problem you're trying to find a solution to leads to those sites

 

[h4x0rj3ff]

I think people are misunderstanding the OP. He asked:
How useful is "Google Now"?
not:
How useful is Google, now?

Google Now is a program on Jellybean android devices much like Siri on iPhone.

just thought i would clarify everyone

 

[nickdalzell]

ah, oops.

 

[bigdrew]

I think it's worth it for the traffic updates alone. It tells me what time to leave so I arrive on time, and offers an alternate route if there are delays. The package tracking is pretty convenient, and weather is nicely done though I generally glance at Beautiful Widgets instead. The traditional voice search stuff has been enhanced quite a bit too. GNow really is neat and I hope Google makes this a focus for their Android development.

 

[Digital Controller]

I agree with BigDrew, i love it for when i need to commute to and from work and get traffic updates, this way before work or after i know what way i can take to get home.

Otherwise, i enjoy the locations it gives me, like what restaurants are nearby, and showing packages i have shipped.

It's an all around good app, and i can much improvement in it in the future.

 

[nickdalzell]

does it talk back? if so I may have some fun with it when I reinstall a JB ROM on my Fire. but it reminds me of Voice Actions to me. you know, it takes commands but lacks the coolness of voice response--my one love after being a big fan of Trek. there's that sci-fi factor when you hear 'Acknowledged. opening Google Play Store *beep!*' on a real-life 'PADD'

 

[h4x0rj3ff]

does it talk back? if so I may have some fun with it when I reinstall a JB ROM on my Fire. but it reminds me of Voice Actions to me. you know, it takes commands but lacks the coolness of voice response--my one love after being a big fan of Trek. there's that sci-fi factor when you hear 'Acknowledged. opening Google Play Store *beep!*' on a real-life 'PADD'

Yes it does! Only on certain things like weather and the time or setting an alarm tho

 

[nickdalzell]

I will need to try it then. would work wonders with my current british English voice engine

 

[xmr405o]

Google now is pretty useful. I use it daily for weather, traffic, sports and my kids use it as a dictionary. They love how she talks.

 

[nickdalzell]

it's too bad that Majel Barrett Roddenberry died before we could have her as an Android voice engine. that would increase my geek Trekkie factor to have that on a tablet!

 

[zuben el genub]

Don't need it. I know when rush hour is and how to avoid it, I prefer Weatherbug, a good daily ephemeris, and a different sports score app. I don't bother with anything else in town. I'm not a fan of eating out or movies. I don't care where my friends are since they have the habit of calling/texting at any time so I don't need to track them.

The Vulcan doesn't always carry his phone - he needs a long transmission electronic dog collar.

 

[Wilkas]

it wasn't useful to my battery life