Google Now comes closer to Chrome, shares TV show info

 The Android version of Google's notification system can reveal background about TV you're watching, and Google is wiring Now up to Chrome, too

 

Chrome prompts users if they want to receive Google Now updates through their browser. On a Mac, the prompt is through a menu-bar icon; on Windows, through a status bar icon.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) Google Now notifications are expanding from Android to Chrome, and now the service can show information on TV shows you're watching and sales offers you've signaled interest in.
Chrome and Chrome OS have had a flag that lets people enable Google Now for weeks, but it hasn't been connected to an actual Google server. But a notification now appears that asks, "Enable Google Now Cards -- Would you like to be shown Google Now cards?"

On Windows, Chrome lets you configure the list of apps you want to let use the notifications service.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

I got the prompt to enable Google Now for Chrome through a menu bar item on OS X 10.8 and a status bar item on Windows 8. Though it's not yet clear if notifications are actually active, the fact that Chrome is asking people to enable the service shows Google is making steady progress toward that goal.
On Windows, there's also a control panel for setting which Web apps and extensions are permitted to send me notifications. Along with Google Now, options on my machine include Google+ Photos, Google Documents, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Gmail, Tweetdeck, Amazon Cloud Reader, and The New York Times.
The Chrome expansion means many more people could get access to the notification technology. Google Now is designed to prompt people to find information before they actively ask for it -- for example, navigation instructions for a location they searched for on Google Maps or sports scores for a game.
Google Now is an ambitious project that holds the potential to change Google from a company that reacts to what people search for into one that actively anticipates what they need or want. It's well on its way to becoming the interface for a digital assistant -- at least for people who have lots of personal data stored in Gmail messages, Google Calendar appointments, address book entries, Google Maps saved map locations, and other Google services.
On the flip side, there's a risk that for a lot of people, notifications on PCs and mobile devices could become just another overloaded communication channel. The more often we're pestered by buzzing phones and pop-up alerts, the less attention we pay to the and the more likely it is that high-priority updates will be overlooked amid the noise. So it's good that Google offers Chrome users a way to permit or deny notifications from Web apps and on Android to enable or disable various Google Now alert channels.
Google is steadily adding new notification channels to Google Now, and Wednesday night, it announced two more for the Google Search for Android app: TV and Google Offers. Google described the features thus:

TV Cards: If you have an internet-connected TV, Google Now can help unlock more information about what you're watching. Just connect your Android device to the same network that your TV is on and tap "Listen for a TV show" in Google Now. We will show you information, like where you've seen an actor in the cast before, or more information about the people mentioned in the show. So if you were watching Nik Wallenda cross the Grand Canyon this weekend, with Google Now, you could learn that the "King of the Wire" in fact holds seven Guinness World Records, including highest bike ride on a high-wire.
Google Offers: Now you can get reminders for your saved offers when you're near the store -- right when you need it. Google Now will pull up the offer so you can use it quickly and easily.

Google Offers is a service that lets people sign up for discounts from retailers. The Google Offers app for Android and iOS already could be used to alert people when they got near a store for which they'd signed up for an offer.

To use Google Now in Chrome, you have to open the "about:flags" Web page and enable the feature then restart the browser.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Google Now cards, such as these stock prices, appear underneath the search box on Android, accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

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Apple's ads failing, says firm that called Surface ads effective

 

Ace Metrix, a company that likes to think it knows how to measure TV ad effectiveness, says Apple's new ads are not a success with consumers.

 

 

Once you put a number on something, that's it, isn't it?
Your height, your shoe size, your IQ, they all define you.
Some companies like to put a number on ads. Why wallow in thinking about the emotional impact of an ad, when you can just give it a number -- pass or fail?
I was moved to utter stasis, therefore, when Bloomberg offered me the pulsating news that Apple's latest ad -- the one introducing the line "Designed by Apple in California" was a mere 489.
A 489 is about the level of, oh, a Jay Leno joke or an Ann Taylor dress. Yes, the industry average is 542. So this ad is dancing topless in the Mediocrity Lounge. (Other recent Apple ads are scoring at 560 and 537, so they're not exactly Ginger Rogers either.)
As I shed a large, lugubrious tear for Cupertino, I suddenly remembered where I'd heard about Ace Metrix before.

This is the company that declared Microsoft's original Surface ads demolished Apple's work in terms of effectiveness.
Yes, that snappy, unforgettable opus with teenagers in little skirts, cavorting with Surfaces, scored a 674.
The only odd lack of correlation was between this score and the numbers recorded by Microsoft's sales department.
I am sure that Ace Metrix has wonderful metrics. After all, it surveys "at least" 500 people before raising its scorecard like Bruno Tonioli on "Dancing With The Stars."
Yet I fear that, as with every survey ever created, there are tiny snags, considerable inefficiencies.

Still, it doesn't mean that -- given the fine numerical law of averages -- Ace Metrix might not have lucked out on some truths here.
It claims its respondents moan that the new ad is both too sad and too long.
I don't have that problem. What's troubling is Apple's lurching into talking about itself, in rather labored terms.
Even when it created the "Here's To The Crazy Ones" ad, it never talked of itself. It simply added its logo to a sentiment.
This time, we hear of "the experience of a product." We hear about a product: "Does it deserve to exist?", as we see a tourist ignoring the locals because he's too busy playing with his iPad.
There's a lot of "we" in the voiceover.
I'd like to tell you a secret: this ad was originally conceived without all the we-ing. The voiceover was added at a later stage.
That is a pity.

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NEW 2013 PAKISTANI AND INDIAN BRIDAL DRESSES

NEW 2013 PAKISTANI AND INDIAN BRIDAL DRESSES

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