Why Google Now is better off

Google Now, from the very beginning, made clear that it needed to be fed with data, so it can give good and useful preemptive information, understand what we really need, provide what we ask for.

His biggest limitation is indeed the data, or lack thereof.

An example: it doesn't take time into account when suggesting commutes or (even worse) it doesn't offer Bus or Tram routes in Paris.
Without any means to manually provide such data, Google Now is a useless nuisance, worth turning off.
The second problem is somewhat cultural: if you want to make the best out of it, you need to use voice commands or enter equivalent search questions. That implies furious tapping on the phone or the even more awkward "Ok, google" voice command, which needs to be loud enough and will likely activate at least half a dozen smartwatches or smartphones in the vicinity.
At some point US companies such as Google will need to realize that there is a whole world that is not the United States. Maybe they already know that, but either the business outside is irrelevant (unlikely) or there are several degrees of difficulty to gather useful data (more likely).
What I personally don't like in these softwares is the "users are sheep" attitude, the oversimplification of tools. It gives me the impression of a control freak attitude, an arrogant underestimation of my capabilities to configure and adapt a tool to my needs.
So Google and all, please don't take all users as dumb sheep and introduce a (hidden, at least) way to provide useful data to your apps. You might even gain some out of it.

That's not a bug, it simply lacks the information about work hours or timetables.

I read a lot of good reviews about it, which bring me to consider that better data is available in the US, but not in countries such as France or Italy. I suppose that's the same limitation for all other "assistants" (i.e. Siri and Cortana), although I didn't have any chance to verify it.

The importance of being Trained

The world of business is usually said to be complex. Maybe, but I believe there are some constants, universal and simple considerations that eventually lead to success.

Business is about trust and people. Product quality is almost coincidental where these two are strong.

My theory is simple: business is about trust, because you deal only with someone you trust up to a certain degree, and trust is about people.

Therefore the most valuable asset for a successful business is people, not products. Having a good product is mandatory, but by far not sufficient.

When it comes to make a choice regarding a technology, there is a figure that plays the most important role: it's the Trusted Advisor. He or she is usually a technical person or team, trusted for his knowledge, insight and vision. A figure that can heavily influence customer's decisions, because of the trust built in practical experience.

A trusted advisor is someone that knows deep his matter of expertise and has enough connections to get any answer he can't provide. Therefore it's imperative for any company to have one working closely with the most important customers.

To achieve and maintain such expertise, a constant training is mandatory. Perfect example are individual sports: martial arts, archery, athletics all share one extremely important point: talent is useful to begin with, but training is what brings you to the top.
Perfecting, little by little, our skills creates a constant substrate to build upon our professional growth.
A competence that transpires and instills confidence in customers.

Even with lack of initial talent a huge improvement can be made. Team sports such as basketball are proof of that. Put together 5 hard workers, not necessarily talented, and you will have a stronger team than one with a star and 4 lazy mediocre players.

My point is: either a talented individual or a well-focused team could achieve the same result, that is bringing your customers closer. Therefore trusted. And your company will be more successful.

It's nothing new, but it seems a lot of people forget about it.