Google Now:"懂你心思"的搜索
There are two common complaints about the sort of radical personalisation that Google is attempting with its new Google Now mobile search service. One is that it doesn't work: the other is that it works too well.
人們對谷歌(Google)新推出的高度個性化移動搜索服務Google Now的批評意見主要分爲兩類：一類是認爲用戶體驗太差，另一類則是認爲用戶體驗過好。For the sake of Google's bottom line – not to mention all the other internet companies pushing up against the frontiers of the mobile internet – the latter is by far the preferable error to make.
就這件事對谷歌利潤的影響而言，收到第二類批評意見顯然比收到第一類要好。如果考慮到其他各家互聯網公司也在不斷拓展移動互聯網領域的邊界，結論就更是如此了。Google Now is an oxymoronic idea that might best be called "push search". If it works as advertised, your phone could one day automatically serve up answers to your most pressing questions – before you even think of asking them.
Google Now是對傳統搜索服務的一種顛覆，也許稱其爲"推送搜索"更爲合適。如果Google Now真象宣傳的那樣管用，那麼有一天你的手機會在你主動搜索答案之前就自動爲你最爲急迫的問題做出解答。
For advertisers, who live with the perennial conceit that they have the perfect product or service to satisfy your every unexpressed want, this is a powerful idea. Google says it has no plans yet to put advertising into the service, though this seems inevitable.
對於廣告公司來說，"推送搜索"是一個很有吸引力的想法，因爲長期以來廣告公司的生存之道就是使消費者相信其所推介的產品或服務能夠完美滿足消費者尚未表達出的任何需求。谷歌表示目前尚無計劃在Google Now中投放廣告，不過這似乎是難以避免的。The "works too well" argument holds that people are not ready to accept the fruits of personalisation that technology has made possible. According to this view, a machine that "knows you" will simply be too creepy.
"用戶體驗過好"是指人們還未準備好接受在技術層面已經可行的個性化服務成果。在持這種觀點的人看來，一款"懂你心思"的機器簡直太可怕了。The "doesn't work" complaint, on the other hand, is strongly voiced by author and internet commentator Doc Searls. In his new book The Intention Economy, he argues that amassing piles of data about internet users to "understand" them completely will ultimately prove futile.
作家兼互聯網評論人士多克•西爾斯(Doc Searls)則強烈認爲個性化服務"用戶體驗太差"。西爾斯在自己的新書《意願經濟學》(The Intention Economy)中指出，通過收集互聯網用戶數據來徹底"理解"用戶的嘗試終將被證明是徒勞的。My quick test of Google Now – which will officially be released in a number of handsets running Google's Android software in mid-July – suggests the technology has a long way to go.
我對Google Now進行了簡要測試，結果表明"推送搜索"技術仍有很長的路要走。Google Now將於7月中旬作爲Android 4.1操作系統的組成部分正式發佈，屆時上市的數款手機將搭載Android 4.1系統。
