As a Google employee, I really don't want to be saying "Ok, Google" in my home all the time. It's totally possible for me to go to work in a subway that has Google ads, waste time on my Pixel, work at the Google office for eight hours, waste time on my Pixel, walk past the same ads on the way home, watch YouTube videos and do Google searches about random topics, and ask Google to set an alarm before I go to sleep. It's too much. :)
"OK Google"/"hey Google" is one of the reasons I went with Amazon's products instead! (other reasons include that they seem to understand my voice more reliably than Google or Microsoft's systems). I get to call it Computer instead of Alexa too, though if I were stuck with Alexa it would still be preferable to Google (or Amazon for that matter).
It's isn't just branding though, if I'm right. The wake word needs to be something that is easy to pick out from a complex audio environment and not be a regular part of common speech so cause confusion (computer fails a bit in that regard) so allowing completely custom wake words might cause reliability issues. Also some might choose wake words that the brands don't want to be seen listening for: I might choose "slave" as a Blake's 7 reference for instance but that could easily offend some if they overhear, and there are many other epithets, slurs, and swears, that would not be deemed suitable either.
I do seem to recall that being able to set a customer wake-word was in the works at one point.
I don't see why the system could not be designed such that one could submit a wake-word, which is analyzed for suitability in terms of being sufficiently distinct in complex audio environments, and then checked against a blacklist.
Shouldn't be beyond Google's technical capabilities.
The thing is, a LOT of people avoid Google Home/Assistant because they simply can't bring themselves to blurt out cheesy branding like that.
They really ought to solve that problem. Probably they will right about the time they port Inbox bundling to Gmail and provide a Drive sync client for Linux (it's been, a decade?).
Why is this a problem that needs solving? If the user chooses an ineffective word they'll figure it out pretty quickly... and if they choose an offensive one-- that's on them.
They could also walk around saying offensive words when not addressing the computer.
It wouldn't be a problem if all people were decent and rational.
Unfortunately some would reprogram other people's devices to cause offence for a jape and some will get offended and blame the company for letting it happen.
The difference from Google/Amazon/Apple/MS's point of view is that if I run around yelling the N word and their device doesn't even notice then they can't be seen to be complicit by unreasonable people. It would just be me being an arse.
Heck, some would get offended at the possibility of one of a company's devices responding to loaded words like that even if it never actually happened.
Of course there is another reason: having people use the same word re-enforces brand recognition even if the wake word is not the actual brand just a word/name people associate with it.
I'd prefer it be treated like passwords - upon installation, you should change the default immediately.
I refuse to use a service that requires me to say its globally recognized name so often I will probably become brainwashed to it. And then there's the older hacks with TV commercials that took advantage of those defaults, and the (cooler) hypersonic transmitted voice command attacks, or the ones delivered by vibrating the device's microphone with a laser, etc.
None of these attacks would have worked if the product trigger wasn't so predictable from the get-go.
Eventually even Raspberry Pi stopped using the default pi/raspberry default combination. How we invoke our voice-activated programs should be treated with equal care.
This reminds me of the great Sci-fi book series "Old Man's War", where the soldiers get a thought-controlled computer called "Brain Pal™" installed in their head. After installation they first have to choose a name and almost everyone uses a swear word for that. The main protagonist then keeps activating it with the phrase "Hey Asshole".
I'm pretty sure that this book came out way before Google Assistant.
I'd also add their insistence on using the same branding approach for experimental apps as their core offerings. A new app named `Google $RandomNoun` has a really high chance of being killed a few years from now, while `Google Search` and `Google Maps` don't. I'm sure the company wants to use the same structure to give new products an initial boost, but they seem weirdly indifferent to the long term damage it's doing to the overall brand.
So, I can't find the reference googling it now, but apparently Jeff Bezos really wanted Alexa to be called "Amazon" (pretty similar to Ok Google).
I think he didn't want to dilute the brand, and have the association front of mind or something, but the people on the alexa project managed to convince him to go with alexa instead (as it's confusing, and arguably a better name).
I think that's part of the reason for the different wake words, one of which is amazon (though the confusion with people called alexa is likely a much bigger one. It's probably why they have amazon in that list at least).
Very interesting. I can’t help feel the irony given Alexa itself was a brand Bezos acquired* in 1999 to get in on being a Search Engine just when Google was on the rise...
I can hear it now “We finally have a use for that brand we spent all that money on..”
Agreed. And I have a small child. I _really_ don't want them to be forming "relationships" with brands by asking robot assistants named after corporations to do stuff.
This is what has led us to stop using our assistants around the house. I have 4 of those little google pucks around the house that we used for various tasks and automations. Now that we have a 1-year-old we almost never use them because I don't want him learning the phrase "ok google".
It sounded dumb enough for two adults to say it all day, but the convenience was worth it. Having my little one start using the phrase to talk to things is definitely where I draw the line.
Besides, now that it tries to make suggestions after every other command all you really hear in my house in regards to them is "hey google shut the fuck up and do what you're told". Unfortunately the stupid puck doesn't allow you to interrupt the unsolicited FAQ any longer.
Come to think of it, I think I'm getting rid of most of these things this weekend.
My Alexa really needs a way to whitelist commands. I bought it to be a wireless clapper and fancy alarm clock. If it thinks I'm asking it anything outside of those two domains, I am not.
Of course Amazon isn't likely to ever do such a thing, because god forbid we don't have the ability to suddenly order something from Amazon on every device at all times.
> Of course Amazon isn't likely to ever do such a thing, because god forbid we don't have the ability to suddenly order something from Amazon on every device at all times.
Comically, that's actually one of the things its the worst at. I tried to do it exactly once and swore I would never do it again. In the time it takes to read the first search result, I could have found and ordered what I want from my phone. If that's what they were going for, I can't believe they didn't scrap the project.
Supposedly they're fairly good at re-ordering, but given how often Alexa mis-hears me, I'm not a fan of doing anything involving money on it.
That's interesting. The Amazon devices can be configured with a wake word of "Alexa", "Amazon", "Echo" or "Computer". I see Google offers no way to not say "Google".
We have kids too. We use "Computer" which is one of the wake words offered by Amazon because we don't want our kids to get used to the idea of bossing around a person.
Also, I've mapped all of the functions we use to "recipes" that include the word "please" so that they don't work unless you use the word "please." i.e. the upstairs lights are named as for example "the Chicago lights" and there is a recipe that says "turn on the Chicago lights" when someone utters "Computer, please turn on the upstairs lights." So if you say "Computer, turn on the upstairs lights" it says "I don't know what upstairs lights are."
The disadvantage of this approach is that you need to get the string exactly as stored.
Most likely, everyone you know, especially outside of tech, when referencing a search engine, says to "google it".
There are, unfortunately, millions of ways we form relationships with brands. A brand's reason for existing is to live somewhere in our psyche either subconsciously or consciously. We say "Q-tip" instead of cotton swab, "band-aid" instead of bandage, "Advil" when we need ibuprofen, or "Tylenol" when we want acetaminophen. When we see white polar bears around Christmas time, we think of Coca-Cola, and so on and so forth.
All that to say, kudos for you for taking a principled approach, but I am not sure it's going to achieve much.
I think you can trigger Google assistant by using "OK Boo Boo". It works on the Google Home and on my Android phone, and is actually easier for toddlers.
Just wait (a few years, perhaps) until you buy or rent that sweet new self-driving car and try to get out of town for some rest and relaxation... you turned off the radio, but that doesn't matter, because Big G uses the windshield as a billboard looming into your personal space, beaming ads to the most captive audience that exists.
The future is now. Already my local gas station has a screen that starts playing ads the moment you start pumping gas. The mute button on it is broken from being pushed too many times, too hard.
Last year my parents rented a room at a 5 star hotel. The hotel had a smart mirror and I only ever saw that mirror play ads. It's insane.
