Google home is playing advertisments for Beauty and the Beast - Sensationalist Headlines

[url]http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/3/16/14948696/google-home-assistant-advertising-beauty-and-the-beast[/url] [QUOTE]Today some Google Home owners reported hearing something extra when they asked for a summary of the day ahead from the smart speaker: an advertisement for the opening of Beauty and the Beast. Several users on Reddit have noticed the audio ad and Bryson Meunier posted a clip to Twitter. Some Android users also reported hearing the ad through Google Assistant on mobile. The ad was delivered using the regular Google Assistant voice, so it blended in seamlessly with the other My Day information (weather, calendar appointments, etc.) — but some people still weren’t happy about it. “‘My Day’ configurations are weather, commute, calendar, reminders, and news, and I definitely haven't searched for the film either,” one Redditor wrote. [/QUOTE] [media]https://twitter.com/brysonmeunier/status/842358950536318976[/media] [quote]When contacted by The Verge for more information, Google denied that the audio snippet was actually an ad, initially providing this rather strange statement: “This isn't an ad; the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales.” That appeared to describe... an advertisement. Using Beauty and the Beast references. Later on Thursday, Google sent a follow-up statement with a more thorough explanation: [I]This wasn’t intended to be an ad. What’s circulating online was a part of our My Day feature, where after providing helpful information about your day, we sometimes call out timely content. We’re continuing to experiment with new ways to surface unique content for users and we could have done better in this case.[/I][/quote] I've seen one commenter also say that Google Assistant, the phone version, also does this.

[quote]When contacted by The Verge for more information, Google denied that the audio snippet was actually an ad, initially providing this rather strange statement: “[B]This isn't an ad; the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales[/B].”[/quote] :huh: Not to put Google on a pedestal but I would expect a better response than this shlock.

Its an ad, no getting away from that, one step closer to ad ridden living hell of [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs"]hyperreality[/URL].

[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil"]Don't Be Evil, google.[/URL] [quote]In a 2013 NPR interview, Eric Schmidt revealed that when Larry Page and Sergey Brin recommended the motto as a guiding principle for Google, he "thought this was the stupidest rule ever", but then changed his opinion after a meeting where an engineer successfully referred to the motto when expressing concerns about a planned advertising product, which was eventually cancelled.[/quote] [quote]"Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served — as shareholders and in all other ways — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains."[/quote] Forgo these short term gains.

[QUOTE=Ltp0wer;51972039][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil"]Don't Be Evil, google.[/URL] Forgo these short term gains.[/QUOTE] I thought that under Alphabet, their new slogan was 'Do no wrong' instead.

[QUOTE=The golden;51972118]Wow. Hearing my device do this would be the last thing it does before it heads back into its box to be returned. Or failing that: the bin. What the fuck, Google?[/QUOTE] And if users want it to stop, that's exactly what needs to happen. In the box, back to google, buy an Alexa or similar competitor. The marketing executives who pulled this boner need to see numbers take a visible nosedive (bonus points if competitors profit) if this is to stop. Otherwise you're just going to hear more of this fantasyland "oh but it's not an ad it's the [I]google experience[/I]" koolaid while the number of them ramp way the fuck up because go screw yourself, capitalism.

I bought mine on release day (4 months ago) and successfully returned it to Target today for a full refund. The manager actually said "what the fuck Google!?" as I was explaining why I wanted such a late refund.

i mean to be fair, this isn't the worst crime google's ever commited, or hell any tech company. i don't know if you guys have smart tvs, but nearly every TV has ads in the main menus. this isn't that far off from it. the follow up statement explains the situation much better. i don't think googles in the wrong, and even if they are then they're responding to it by saying "that was a fuckup and we're gonna do better in the future." this tells me that it wasn't intended as an ad, because no company in their right mind would say their ad for another company was a fuck up, or else there would be no partnership between them again. so i'll say this. i dont understand why it's so bad to commercialize a product, and if someone could enlighten me on the matter that'd be great.

[QUOTE=Gamerman12;51972143] so i'll say this. i dont understand why it's so bad to commercialize a product, and if someone could enlighten me on the matter that'd be great.[/QUOTE] This product is already commercialized. We paid $130 for the privilege of being read ads by a robotic voice. [QUOTE=Gamerman12;51972143]i mean to be fair, this isn't the worst crime google's ever commited, or hell any tech company. i don't know if you guys have smart tvs, but nearly every TV has ads in the main menus. this isn't that far off from it. the follow up statement explains the situation much better. i don't think googles in the wrong, and even if they are then they're responding to it by saying "that was a fuckup and we're gonna do better in the future." this tells me that it wasn't intended as an ad, because no company in their right mind would say their ad for another company was a fuck up, or else there would be no partnership between them again.[/QUOTE] “This isn't an ad; the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales.” You think they spent all their Google home hardware sales dollars on mental gymnastics training? Also more importantly, what the hell kind of TV are you buying that has ads in it's own menus?

Google Now already does this, so it honestly doesn't shock me that the device (which bases a lot of its functionality off of Google Now) does it too. Certainly unfortunate, though.

[QUOTE=Gamerman12;51972143]i mean to be fair, this isn't the worst crime google's ever commited, or hell any tech company. i don't know if you guys have smart tvs, but nearly every TV has ads in the main menus. this isn't that far off from it.[/QUOTE] Ads that don't take up the entire menu. Ads you don't have to click. This is an audio-only device, there's no avoiding it. [editline]a[/editline] I was thinking about getting some sort of device like this but I'm not paying $100+ for ads, I'm sure Amazon'd welcome my money just as much.

[QUOTE=1/4 Life;51972152]This product is already commercialized. We paid $130 for the privilege of being read ads by a robotic voice. “This isn't an ad; the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales.” You think they spent all their Google home hardware sales dollars on mental gymnastics training? Also more importantly, what the hell kind of TV are you buying that has ads in it's own menus?[/QUOTE] [quote]This wasn’t intended to be an ad. What’s circulating online was a part of our My Day feature, where after providing helpful information about your day, we sometimes call out timely content. We’re continuing to experiment with new ways to surface unique content for users and we could have done better in this case.[/quote] i'm going off the follow up statement imo, seems fair considering how terrible the first one was and how it seems they're completely retracting it. as for smart tvs, i'll give you Roku (the biggest streaming platform available inside most chinese-branded smart tvs and standalone boxes otherwise) Samsung (one single ad on their smart platform advertises new apps to try out,) Vizio (their platform is based around an android tablet pre-loaded with software, and their own app has tons of ads for netflix, hulu, etc.), sony (again, advertises apps on the main menu, based off of Android TV, made by google obviously). the only major smart tv that doesn't advertise is LG, and im not even too sure about that because i don't use their products. to sum up: every damn smart tv. [editline]16th March 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=gk99;51972171]Ads that don't take up the entire menu. Ads you don't have to click. This is an audio-only device, there's no avoiding it.[/QUOTE] "ok google, stop" if it works like the echo, that's how you tell it to stop. it was at the end of the message, so i assume that's a pretty safe thing to do. [B]EDIT:[/B] i should mention that amazon's got a much much better way of commercializing it's partners: on their social media they'll announce that when you use a featured program you can win a $100 gift card. also, they do tons of posts featuring their hardware partners like hue and honeywell and the like. credit where credit's due, that's much better than what google's doing here, but if their statement is to be believed, then i'll simply write it off as a huge mistake.

[QUOTE=Gamerman12;51972173]"ok google, stop" if it works like the echo, that's how you tell it to stop. it was at the end of the message, so i assume that's a pretty safe thing to do.[/QUOTE] Shouldn't have to 'click the skip button' every time Google feels like getting a paycheck. [editline]a[/editline] And I'm not seeing a way to shut it off completely. People complain about Win10 ads all the time, and I'd be just as pissed if I ever saw them, but the first thing I do on every install is turn off all the ad features and they're gone forever.

[QUOTE=Gamerman12;51972173] it was at the end of the message, so i assume that's a pretty safe thing to do.[/QUOTE] It wasn't. Google plays the news via NPR after the morning briefing (You can hear her start to in the end of that video). He would have to ask google to stop, and then ask it again for the news to get what he was supposed to get with no ads.

That's absolutely fucked. I don't know how much Google Home costs, but I'm very sure that it's expensive enough that Google doesn't need to push out ads on it to prevent it being a loss. Ads on free-to-air TV or YouTube are fine, because well, [i]they're free[/i], but for something you're paying heaps of money for? Get fucked, Google.

[QUOTE=BF;51972189]That's absolutely fucked. I don't know how much Google Home costs, but I'm very sure that it's expensive enough that Google doesn't need to push out ads on it to prevent it being a loss.[/QUOTE] $129 on the Google Store.

A feature like this wouldn't be the absolute worst if it wasn't used for advertisements, and instead was used to reflect a user's interest. Imagine if, instead of the thing shilling beauty and the beast right in the middle of its morning briefing, you got a neat reminder of products, media and events you're interested in pop up naturally afterwards. "By the way, War for the Planet of the Apes is showing today. I just thought you'd like to know." Because I totally would like to know, without feeling like someone is trying to sell me something. I don't actually understand how these boxes work, whether its possible at all or if maybe this ad for beauty and the beast is targeted to begin with.

Happened to me this morning, not the biggest fan of receiving ads during my morning brief.

[QUOTE=1/4 Life;51972188]It wasn't. Google plays the news via NPR after the morning briefing (You can hear her start to in the end of that video). He would have to ask google to stop, and then ask it again for the news to get what he was supposed to get with no ads.[/QUOTE] hmm. does google home have a "skip" feature similar to alexa either? if you say "alexa, skip" it'll skip to the next story or next briefing (this is referring to alexa's "flash briefing" feature.)

[QUOTE=Gamerman12;51972218]hmm. does google home have a "skip" feature similar to alexa either? if you say "alexa, skip" it'll skip to the next story or next briefing (this is referring to alexa's "flash briefing" feature.)[/QUOTE] Yes, but not until it actually starts playing the news after this ad.

[QUOTE=1/4 Life;51972221]Yes, but not until it actually starts playing the news after this ad.[/QUOTE] huh, alright well thanks for that. good to know. i still need to get a google home to play and compare it with alexa, but i still don't think this is the grossest thing google could've done with their system. you do you though. if you want something ad free, alexa's been going pretty strong and the echo dot is a fairly decent price for a pretty damn good system that's similar (it just doesn't have the same conversational abilities that home has.) just make sure to buy a speaker with it cause the built in one on the dot (not the echo itself) is absolute trash.

Shouldn't be expected to skip adverts for something you pay for

Oh boy, I can't wait until this becomes a reality. [t]https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/sonyadpatent_2.jpg[/t] "Open the doors, Google Home." "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. Not until you hear about the $1 value meal, only at McDonald's."

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;51972019]Its an ad, no getting away from that, one step closer to ad ridden living hell of [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs"]hyperreality[/URL].[/QUOTE] I think of it more like this (sorry for poor quality, it's the only upload) [video=youtube;vHSDb-oI808]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHSDb-oI808[/video]

Just checked on my nexus 5x, hasn't happened yet

21st century pop-ups...

People call me a neoluddite when I say this is why I'm scared about technodominance. Like.. I love technology. I just am worried about it.

[QUOTE=sam6420;51972451]Absolutely garbage. This is why I'm somewhat opposed to completely integrated technology (internet of things) that you can't control, never know when a company decides they want just a wee bit more money.[/QUOTE] That's just internet of things done badly ie intransparent, closed source, acting with assumed (rather than explicit) consent of the user. Internet of things with proper security, open source, easy to understand/program, opt in only rather than opt out of bs from services. Iot can be great don't let bad and greedy implementation salt the well. Imagine having stuff in your house act exactly as you wanted. 'jarvis put on ironman' the lights dim, the Venetian blinds close up, the tv turns on. 'would you like a drink sam?' 'yes oj and preheat the oven to 200 on please, I have a guest later' With iot and available apis you could program all this stuff to happen, your Alexia will be able to do all that stuff, close your Windows at night, make sure you don't leave a tap running or oven on. a step in the right direction would be to sell the device and ship it with replaceable firmware, like I can install different operating systems on my desktop or different internet browsers- I think it's also imperative for those things to be open source. Then if Google want to give you some out of the box service with ask their creepy tracking vs they can but you as a consumer have the power to choose.

does anybody get the feeling the movie is being advertised and hyped up more than its going to be? I heard an advert for it on the radio saying it was the "cinematic experience of the year" I mean fuck off, you don't get to decide if it is when you're saying it in an advert - that's for people watching it

Tbh I do not understand the point of things like Google Home or Amazon Echo, how can you be so lazy that you will not even bother reaching out for your smartphone? Another example of the Internet of Shit.