Google (GOOG) Now has received a lot of acclaim over the past few months, and now it’s received the coveted “Innovation of the Year” award from Popular Science as well. The publication praised Google’s voice-enabled personal assistant/psychic stalker app as “the first virtual assistant that truly anticipates your needs” and singled the way it “quietly keeps track of searches, calendar events, locations, and travel patterns.” Popular Science also couldn’t resist throwing an elbow at Apple’s (AAPL) Siri voice assistant, which it said seemed “outdated” compared to Google Now.
For those who need a refresher on Google Now, it’s an application that uses search history and location history to figure out what information users might need at what times, such as being able to tell users how long their typical commutes will be given current traffic conditions, and being able to figure out how long in advance users will have to leave for them to make appointments. Google Now can also send out notifications to users telling them that they’ll need to leave at a given time in order to make a meeting based on their location and traffic conditions.
