Note — Reader consensus below seems to be that I’m the one drinking the Flav-r-ade in this post, so proceed at your own risk. That’s not how I see it, of course. CNN asked me about this issue yesterday and I think it is pretty clear, but that may be in part a reflection of my background, who knows? Just as readers expect me to take responsibility for my words, I expect Apple to take responsibility for the performance of its products. The issue isn’t so much abortion clinics as what other big gaps exist in this service? When you call your doctor the recording says “If this is an emergency hang up and call 9-1-1…”
I don’t think Apple really wants to keep its customers from finding abortion services using Siri, the voice-based automated assistant built into iPhone 4S’s. But the company has been remarkably obtuse on the issue, making statements that deny intent, deny culpability, yet at the same time seem evasive. It’s time for Cupertino to learn a lesson in damage control.
Apple has been a charmed company since the 1997 return of co-founder Steve Jobs. Jobs enforced a culture of secrecy on Apple that worked well with its event marketing to make product launches really special and help Apple to become the success it is today. Elements of this strategy are refusing comment, making vague denials, deliberately delaying news or releasing out of cadence with normal news flow, in at least two incidents threatening or actually filing lawsuits against the media, or alternately not appearing to give a damn.
To paraphrase Steve Jobs, I don’t mean this in a small way, I mean it in a big way when I say this attitude appears to me to be by design and pervades the entire company, not just PR.
Visit any Apple store and you’ll see it. Those Apple kids in their t-shirts are friendly and helpful and good at their jobs but don’t you get the sense that they’re drunk on Flav-r-ade? They know what they can and can’t, will and won’t do for you and for all the tattoos and Converse sneakers they aren’t going to go a millimeter over that line. And then there’s their sense of time — AppleTime — which is different from yours and mine, have you noticed?
They live in the zone, while we’re just visiting.
This is fine when things are going beautifully and customers are lined-up down the block, but how well does it work when things aren’t going right, like in this Siri situation? Badly. Apple comes off looking insensitive and smug.
They blamed the problem on Yelp, its supplier of local business data, which could well be correct, but Apple never said “and we’ll fix it right away.”
They blamed the problem on Siri being in beta. I didn’t know that, did you? Siri is part of IOS 5, is that in beta? I didn’t know that and I suspect most of the folks at Apple didn’t know that. In fact I might even go so far as to wonder if it is even true?
Blaming beta software for bad performance is Google’s bag, not Apple’s. That was a stupid PR move and stupid PR moves happen when companies panic.
Which suggests a leadership vacuum of sorts at Apple.
With Steve Jobs gone, the company has told itself and told the world that it won’t try to second-guess Steve’s ghost — no asking “what would Steve do?” But what happens if they don’t have a ready answer to the question “What should Apple do?”
I think that’s what we are seeing here.
There’s a huge lesson for Apple PR in my movie Steve Jobs — The Lost Interview. In one section Steve talks about how companies with monopolies (the examples he used were Xerox and IBM) get caught-up in process because — as monopolies — their content is almost immaterial to success. If everyone is already buying your product then there’s little incentive to make better products so companies come to concentrate on themselves rather than pleasing customers.
Ironically Apple appears to have fallen into this very abyss. They are so caught up in their own process of information and damage control that the actual problem with Siri doesn’t appear to matter to them. Their statements suggest things will improve in a few weeks. This is an example of AppleTime.
Why should it take that long to fix? It shouldn’t and it won’t, but Apple appears to not want to empower us by communicating honestly. They want to surprise us by fixing it by next Tuesday, yet don’t respect us enough to explain the plan.
Their first thought is to dissemble, not to accept responsibility. They seem to think solely about how this abortion incident could hurt them, not how it could be a chance to show Apple’s character — a chance to have character.
Everyone appears to be too busy covering asses and trying to control the process to actually fix the problem.
Maybe after 16 years Steve forgot his own lesson, but I’m guessing that if he read this column he’d get it right away. And Steve would learn from it, because he was one guy who wasn’t afraid to admit when he was wrong.
At least that’s what he says in our movie.
First!
Second!
Third!
And yes I did know before this incident that Siri is still in Beta.
Yup, someone with an X in their name didn’t watch the keynote introducing the 4S and Siri, didn’t read the literature on line or the reviews. Apple doesn’t tend to release beta software but they’ve done the same with the cloud version of iWork for some time. Why should Google has all the betas? Besides, in Canada and most of the rest of the world, Siri doesn’t yet do location based information.
We should be thankful Siri doesn’t have a French accent or attitude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dI-WZ5cvM0&feature=player_embedded
Apple is an insanely great company producing insanely great products. Perfect products. Überperfect products. Every time. All the time.
Yeah, right. Except when it does not. And, depending how strong the Reality Distortion Field is with you, this exception might happen a lot of times.
They are a company producing products, which can be perfect to a large extent, or in most circumstances, but not always perfect, at least not to all their users. But they will never admit this. They have no procedures in place to simply say “We’re sorry, we admit there is a glitch, we’ll fix this ASAP in our usual, insanely great manner” ( remember antennagate?).
Kind of reminds me of Fukushima Daiichi events and all the denial by TEPCO…
Perfection retards refinement.
The greatest trick Jobs ever played was to establish the doctrine of infallibility. With any other tech company, if it doesn’t work the company is blamed even if it is a PEKBAC, or especially if it is a PEKBAC. But with the Stockholm syndrome component of the fanboi mentality this is replaced with “You’re holding it wrong!”.
The doctrine of Perfection is also utterly pernicious in that it imbues corporate management with extreme caution. Raymond Chandler stated “A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong.”
Apple is terrified to be wrong, to not do what “Steve would do”. In the meantime ASUS is throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the market and running with what works.
Apple goofs are not on a fukushimi Daiichi scale. that would take something like an iPhone flaming out onboard an airplane. that doesn’t happen.
uh…… but the plane was landed and the airgate was open. it’s different 😉
we actually have quite a lot of companies that don’t say a damn thing and tromp merrily along regardless of how things are going outside the doors. but it’s different when the products are cool and generally work.
it’s different when stocks only go up and home values only go up and everybody win-win-wins. pay no attention to the float and the CDO^3s over there in the corner.
it’s different because the other party is lying and wants to kill you so our bill doesn’t pass.
yeah, there’s a lot of it around. Apple just was close the other day, so Cringe tarred them. if AMD’s one-cylinder Bulldozer chip is nearby tomorrow, that will get its well-deserved tar and feathers coat. you can’t tag all the world’s losers in the same article… it begins to look like the Library of Congress.
Honestly Bob, often you on on the money but this is absolute bullshit. Everyone know Siri is in beta. Everyone know is sources its knowledge elsewhere. Apple made a point about it. Cut them a break for once. Please.
You need to be careful when using words like “everyone”. I read the press releases and I don’t recall hearing anything about beta. New yes, but that’s not the same as beta. I’m sure if I ask my Mom she wouldn’t know and wouldn’t have known what it meant if she did. Based on the number of news articles I’m seeing accusing Apple of deliberately censoring results I’d have to say it was more than just the two of us.
In the press conference when they announced iPhone 4S Siri was described as being a beta product. And if you search for “Planned Parenthood or Family planning services” the clinics pop up, so it sounds like bad meta tag at yelp to me (and a reminder, that the reason its probably going to take a few weeks is that they have to decide on the best technical fix. e.g. ask yelp to improve the meta data or put a translator onto Siri so that “abortion clinics” point to meta tags on Family planning).
Apple never hid the fact that Siri is in Beta.
It was announced at the product roll-out event: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/apple-special-event-october/id275834665?i=99827893
It’s on the Siri info page: https://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html
It’s in the Apple Press Release you said you read: https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/10/04Apple-Launches-iPhone-4S-iOS-5-iCloud.html
Many news outlets complained at that time about the fact that it was released as Beta. ‘Why would Apple do this?’, ‘Apple never releses Beta software!’, etc. Yet there are at least two other instances of Apple releasing Beta communication software: iChat AV was first a public Beta, and FaceTime was first a public Beta.
Sure, it’s “beta”, but it is also arguably the most promoted feature of the phone. In most cases they just say “introducing Siri”, so I have to side with Bob on this one. I just don’t think Apple sees this as serious as the antennae issue was, and I don’t either, so I don’t see it as a sign of their inevitable decline.
This is one of the few times when I haven’t been in agreement with your thoughts.
Apple made a pretty big deal of Siri’s status as a beta product. It was loud and clear at the keynote, mentioned on the website, and babbled on about by hundreds of tech blogs.
Apple has a unique way of managing damage. They under promise and over deliver.
They don’t promise a solution until they understand the problem, figure out the best way to solve it, and decide when they can reasonably deliver the fix. That process takes weeks, not days.
One other point. Really. Who gives a crap that Siri didn’t return the results that a few people were expecting? If you don’t get the results you expect, Google, Bing or Yahoo it. Are we already so dependant on Siri that we can’t fall back on the old tech solutions for a few minutes?
I completely agree with these points!
Apple never minced words that the one thing about iOS5 that wasn’t fully “finished” was Siri and the beta stage of its development.
And I second the final point. Really? Anyone who has used Siri knows it doesn’t know everything, can’t find everything. What it can do, it does pretty well (though not always perfectly anyway). For the rest of it, any intelligent and reasonable person will understand it’s a work in progress. Think back to apps! That’s been a work in progress and there are STILL apps I’d like to see but haven’t yet.
So anyone who gets worked up about some topic like “can’t find abortion services” is just trying to create smoke where there is no fire. Do you use Siri and only Siri for all your data searches? Doubtful. Are you going to sue one search engine because they don’t have the same results as Google? No, you’d just go use Google!
C’mon, this is absurd. Someone’s an Apple hater that just went looking for some politically charged topic that they can bring into the spotlight and charge that Apple’s committed a horrible wrong. Ridiculous.
I have to agree that this article (to put it politely) is pure cow manure, and I am sorely disappointed.
Anyone who watched the release would have been left in no doubt as to the fact Siri was Beta and that information was provided by a third party. The fact that the mainstream media chose to often omit this fact is not the fault of Apple. Lets be honest, anyone fool enough to believe that the mainstream media is a reliable and accurate source of information is only deluding themselves. As a long time avid reader I am aghast at the thought, and hope I am erroneous, that you would both choose to keep yourself informed on such events through the mainstream media AND that you would consider its content reliable.
As to search engines – None of them are perfect. I am regularly frustrated by the ability of Google to marvel at its own smugness in bringing back more than a million responses that don’t even vaguely relate to my searches. I would much rather it come back empty handed than waste my time with the excrement it decides dumps on me instead.
Do you want Apple to fix it right away or do you want Apple to fix it right? Would you rather have a company that is good at engineering products and bad at PR, or would you rather have a company that is mediocre at engineering products and great at PR? Good PR does not equal good character, IMHO.
Sorry Bob – Gotta agree with Chris’s bullshit on ya – And LTMP’s “who gives a crap”.
Much ado about nothing. Don’t change a thing Apple.
Gotta agree with the commenters. When they announced Siri, everyone was talking about how big a deal it was that Apple called this software beta, compared to the ever beta at Google. The media in general forgets things really quickly though.
An iPhone 4S owner is probably a pretty savvy and well off person. Should those type I services be needed, the place to go is either already known or you know how to find it: Google Search. One doesn’t on a whim ask Siri where to go for this service. One does ask questions like this when drunk or goofing off to test the limits of the system which is likely what happened here. A big to do about nothing.
I have not used Siri but it sounds like it’s been hyped up as some sort of artificial intelligence. Something like that takes years or even decades to develop. Now that people see it behaving like the glorified voice-activated search engine that it is, some of them blame it on a conservative conspiracy instead of the limitations of any new piece of software.
I was reading an online Op-Ed article yesterday asking, “Is Siri Sexist?” This is just plain ridiculous. Apple shouldn’t even dignify this kind of pseudo-witch hunt with a reply.
Seems like Bob needs to do some of his own damage control, admit his mistake, learn from it, and fix it right away.
Well you guys seem to have done that for me, thanks.
I tend to just let it hang out in cases like these so everyone can take their best shot. You seem to feel I should slink away or remove the post entirely, which would be cowardly.
Whether Siri is in beta or not, Apple isn’t taking proper responsibility here. It’s THEIR service, not Yelp’s. I’m sure untold pain is being inflicted on Yelp by Apple right now, yet the company’s outward response is ho-hum. But I think this is anything but ho-hum because search results are supposed to be as correct as they can be and these aren’t even remotely correct.
I would have felt better, for example, had they at least quoted a company officer, putting a face on the problem. And in time I’m sure they will — once they figure out who’s in charge.
Nope, no need to take it down. A point is a point is a point. However, definitely not one of your stronger articles.
But, I think I can summarize what you’d really like to see in a nutshell:
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
FROM:
RE: Siri & Abortions
We’re working on it
Sent from my iPad
Sorry Bob, but one of the reasons I have not upgraded to an iPhone 4S is because Siri is only in beta. Apple were right up front about it. Though it looked *almost* compelling, I would wait for the release version.
I think Bob is riding the promote my movie train.
Really? Much to do about nothing.
Bob,
This has to be one of your more sillier posts. Put me in the “this is bullshit” camp.
Bob, Bob, Bob … you really don’t need do write silly posts to promote your movie. I will watch it anyway, when/if it ever comes to the UK.
+1
As always, we see the folks who freely drink the Apple Kool-Aid rush to its defense. Too bad evangelism is a core value among the Apple true believers. When you have a problem, admit it, fix it, and MAKE SURE IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN.
Have you ever searched, say Google Maps, for something you know is there and it can’t find it?
Bob,
I guess some of us see Apple as preeminently ethical and efficient in its dealings. Apple sees itself as an engineering/design led company; they are not into bullshit corporate speak and you seem to crave that here.
Apple figures it out and delivers the *right* solution. They don’t care so much about the atmospherics. Surprising you don’t see it that way, but that’s how it looks from the bleachers.
Bottom line: I suspect the prospects of your movie got you a bit off balance. Please don’t lose it for the movie again.
Yep, you blew this one. You could have written nearly the same article with Apple’s involvement with and denial about Carrier IQ (look it up) and been much more persuasive than going to this non-story of SIRI.
Good point. I’d actually rather see an article on Carrier IQ anyway than pointing out the obvious that Siri is in beta. Yeah, we know! Not a story worth covering anymore.
……..please liberals! have more abortions!
Your broken DNA is being slowly but surely weeded out of the gene pool. ( thank god)
unfortunately the right-wing doesn’t believe in evolution so this can’t happen, sorry!
+1
+1 insightful.
can I come back and mod up for funny, too?
It may be true that anti-evolutionists vote with conservatives, but it does not follow that all conservatives are anti-evolution.
RINO!
I’ll take that as a compliment since it really means people skeptical of big, expensive, wasteful, government intrusion into the lives of the productive people, fostered by the illusion of security.
The tireless commitment on the Internet to stating the obvious never ceases to amaze me! Nor the absence of a sense of humor.
What’s obvious to one may not be obvious to another, hence the need for education (and smilies to denote humor).
Bob’s criticism about beta is valid if you consider what Apple wants the public … not the tech mavens … to believe. What they want the public to believe is what they portray in the commercials. And I have yet to see a Siri commercial with any kind of “beta” disclaimer.
Bob’s criticism, IMO, wasn’t about the fact that Siri is “beta” but the fact that Apple PR pointed to it as an excuse or rationalization for the lack of abortion results. As we used to say in the military, that’s an excuse, not a reason.
Thanks. You expressed the situation perfectly. Although I wouldn’t put it past any company to “fix” a “non-software-beta” issue just to please their current and future customers.
This article seems uncharacteristically angry. Bob, you can ask Siri to search Google for abortion clinics, counseling, or whatever. Siri is an excellent front end for searches when it lacks an answer from its own database.
I’ll call crap on this one too. Terribly article, of the National Enquirer quality. Wish I could unread it. Bob took the easy lazy road.
On an aside, Why is no one upset that Siri tests seem to indicate that she’ll shown you mental health facilities if you tell her you’re suicidal, rather than directing you to the closest gun shop or high bridge? Seems pretty similar ti this issue to me.
Personally I question why someone would ask their AI (Siri) for abortion advice!
Siri is a mighty impressive Artificial Intelligence, but perhaps the error was assuming that the user would be intelligent too?
We watched for years a Microsoft who was in denial over the countless security problems with Windows. Eventually they got the message, started fixing things and now have a pretty good way of plugging the holes as they are discovered. Lets not forget how ugly it was in the beginning.
Some of us own Android phones. We’re dealing with ill-behaved apps that feel the need to report our every movement and drain our batteries in the process. Guess who makes one of the leading bad apps? Facebook. Then there was the Android update that killed countless LG phones, making all of us return to our phone stores to replace the OS with an older version. Guess what — we can’t get a word out of either Google or LG. Our phone carriers who had nothing to do with the problem are the ones stuck with it. Then there is the Carrier-IQ story. Our Android phones are NOT secure. We are in the same position as were Windows about 15 years ago — there are security problems and the folks that manage the software are hiding.
Okay, lets be honest. Until a few days ago Apple never used the words SIRI and BETA together in the same sentence, or even in the same paragraph. Bob is absolutely right in what he writes. SIRI is a search engine. It is a new search engine. It takes time to make search engines useful. Apple should have said — “Search engines are a result of years of continuous improvement. Ours is brand new and we know it needs improvement. Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention. We are sorry. The incorrect responses were not intentional. We will fix the problem.”
I saw the Steve Jobs Lost Interview last week. When you see it, you will see Bob made a serious effort to keep his parts in the video to an absolute minimum. It was clear he wanted the video to be pure Steve Jobs and untainted by others. When you see the video you will see no self serving promotional comments from Bob. It is all Steve Jobs. There are some great lessons in the video. I think it is going to become part of the curriculum of many business schools in the near future. I don’t think Bob is wrong in sharing a few of those lessons in this column. They definitely apply to the situation.
The greatest risk to Apple’s business is to lose the ability to make decisions. This is common in companies that lose iconic leaders. Steve Jobs understood this and warned Apple about it. I think Bob has done Apple a great service today.
As long as you don’t count the iPhone 4S announcement, or the other Siri PR materials from the date of the annoucement.
For example, https://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/10/04/Apples-New-iPhone-A-Victim-of-Its-Own-Success.aspx#page1
Isn’t it a bit early to roll out the “Steve Jobs is gone – Apple has lost its way” meme?
Wow, Cringe found a way to combine Apple and abortion, two hot buttons, in the same post. I think this has less to do with the technical aspects of Siri search, and it’s more about trying to generate hits and click-throughs for his blog. No big deal, many other bloggers do likewise, but I’d rate his attempt as unusually lame.
If Apple doesn’t get Siri out of beta soon, it’ll be too late and I’ll have to carry this thing to term!
Enough people jumped on the “beta was well publicized” point. I think what is interesting is that despite many of us seeing that as a big, well-known deal, someone as knowledgeable as Bob Cringley was unaware of it. To the degree that “public beta” is a page out of Google’s playbook as he notes, it doesn’t seem to be working too well for Apple. I think that strategy only flies for web-based products where people are conditioned to frequent tweaks and bug fixes just appearing (e.g. Google’s new toolbar). Apple to their credit, has created a first-class consumer electronics experience and “beta” is no part of that.
1. I’ve followed Apple closely for 20 years & worked there in the mid-90’s in QA.
2. Upon the launch of iPhone 4S and Siri, I clearly don’t remember Siri being labeled as BETA. But I also had low expectations for it as it was a ‘1.0’ release (probably because I’ve been dealing with Microsoft products too long) and SEARCH applications are completely moving targets by their very nature.
3. Given the dynamic nature of SEARCH, size of the potential # of searches, there is almost no way to write and perform all of the possible test cases before the release of a product. And even if a test case was written for the problem and it tested fine before release the dynamic nature of the web could easily break it.
4. Apple needs to change its PR ways in regards to Siri or its going to be come a huge problem for them.
ok but you weren’t following that closely then. The fact that it was announced as Beta was news in itself as, pre-Steve, Apple didn’t do that. They pulled a Google.
I think Apple actually explained themselves very well, and I already see the controversy die down.
As Apple explained, they use Yelp for services which can be way better than a typical yellow page listing for certain things. For example, ask “Are there any Kosher restaurants around?” or “Are there any vegetarian restaurants around?” and see what you get. It brings up restaurants that don’t have those descriptions in their phone book listings. Abortions services aren’t a big Yelp category. So, Siri looked at business listings, but most abortion clinics don’t have the word “Abortion” in their name. A search for Planned Parenthood did turn up listings though.
Heck, if you want controversy, try looking for Halal restaurants. Siri can find kosher restaurants and Hindu restaurants, but not Halal restaurants? That’s purposeful discrimination against Moslems! Proof that Apple is under the thumb of the Zionists!
Either that, or Siri simply doesn’t have the word “Halal” in its vocabulary yet. Not a big Moslem population in the Cupertino area. Asking for Halal restaurants gives searches for “Hawaii Restaurants” or “All around Restaurants”. Maybe Siri will be able to find Halal restaurants once Siri is out of beta.
And, about Beta…
Yes, Apple was very, very clear that Siri is beta software. If Apple was Google, people would have understood. All software Google makes is in constant beta, and always has rough edges.
However, this is Apple of the spit and polish. Apple showed off Siri, and people were too busy asking things like “Where can I hide a body?” or “Will you marry me?” to hear Apple tell us Siri is beta. And, they did heavily advertise Siri as the feature for the iPhone.
I find Siri the most useful feature on the iPhone. When I listen to a podcast, and they mention something, I can tell Siri to issue a reminder, then continue with the podcast. I go through my cupboards and pantry while using Siri to make my shopping list. When I was cooking for Thanksgiving, I used Siri to set alarms for the various dishes I was cooking (“Set a Turkey Alarm in 40 minutes. Set a Pie alarm in 35 minutes…”).
Heck, I’ve seen ready to be released software that was less polished. Siri is beta? “Siri, are you beta software?” “I can’t answer that.” Dammit, there goes Apple stonewalling the public once again.
“Visit any Apple store and you’ll see it. Those Apple kids in their t-shirts are friendly and helpful and good at their jobs but don’t you get the sense that they’re drunk on Flav-r-ade?”
Bob, on this at least I think you’ve nailed it. I’ve been a Mac user for, I don’t know, 15 years now. And while I don’t visit an Apple Store often, they are a nice resource.
But boy, are they also creee-eepy.
“When Apple announced the iPhone 4S, it labeled Siri as “beta” software, though the suggestion was that this had more to do with eventual support for more languages and additional services.”[1]
1. https://www.macworld.com/article/163404/2011/11/siri_outage_leaves_iphone_4s_owners_bereft.html
Bob, where were you because Apple announced that Siri was beta when they introduced Siri at the iPhone 4S introduction.
And fix it? for Pete’s sake with billions of possible questions for Siri, a lot of people/organizations will be able to get upset when Siri doesn’t answer in the manner that they think it should.
This is not an urgent issue nor should it even be the issue it has been elevated to. Apple hasn’t failed in its’ response.
It is beta, let us know about problems and we’ll continue to improve the product. What more should you expect?
This is a completely stupid issue, blown way out of proportion! Family Planning Clinic’s don’t use the word “abortion” in their branding, that would be financial suicide! They provide many more services besides terminating unwanted pregnancies. Not to mention at least 50% of the public is against abortion. It’s a hot button issue. Sure Yelp! can create the “abortion” keyword to be recognized in a search, but I am not sure they would want to. Apple probably should have just kept mum about the whole thing. I suppose it’s reached a fever pitch and that would explain their careful response.
Siri fails to return results all the time. Sure, it’s smart about some contexts but others it falls flat on it’s face unless you are very specific in your query using the precise words that would give a proper result. Heck, that’s the case with Google. Suppose you are searching for a medical problem, if you don’t determine the exact medical terms you are going to get some poor results. If you use the proper medical terminology you get amazing results that are more relevant. i.e. medical journals, etc.
Bottom line, the Pro Choice crowd is attacking Apple for free press coverage and hype. Just like Greenpeace and others have done in the past. They attack Apple because any public attack on Apple will result in press / blog coverage in amounts that if printed out, would cover Mt. Everest or wrap paper around the worlds entire circumference!
I do not mean to hijack this thread, but would love to see an article digging into why Apple allows our iPods to be stolen.
They have the device serial number. You registered it when you connected to iTunes.
You need iTunes in order to do anything useful with your iPod.
When the device is wiped and reconnected to iTunes by someone else, Apple can easily know about it. Why is there no option for me to flag my device as lost / stolen so that Apple can send me a notification that someone else is using my device?
I will just repost here what I reposted elsewhere, because its relevant:
The most glaring issue with the article is in its unstated assumptions. They assume each search has to be programmed in. Or that things are being actively blocked. This is simply incorrect. The system uses algorithms to make decisions. There are an infinite number of phrases and an infinite number of responses that change constantly. Much like a search engine is constantly moving, they do not program anything specific in. This is almost definitely the result of poor underlying data or data quality issues.
Take for example, looking for a laundry mat. It searches its database and resources for things called ‘laundry mat’. You may not find it by such a slang term, so it does its best to interpret what you mean. It does some analysis of the term via resources that always seem to map to coin wash laundry services, and gives you results on that.
But, search for ‘abortion’, and you find a massive amount of data where very little of it points to specific clinics. Instead, a lot of the data points to various other businesses that don’t seem to be related. It may find churches or anti-abortion groups and their locations or services. That would push all of the results into being listed as “low quality”.
Not finding specific places can also be explained by this. If its pool of resources has the clinic flagged as being “poor”, either by bad reviews or by being literally flagged as controversial, then it simply won’t return the result.
Think like a marketer. Its better to return no results then a result that is likely to be incorrect or unsatisfactory to the consumer. Its their reputation on the line for giving BAD advice.
Its very much like spammers who try to get high pageranks on google. If you search for some product, you often find tangential links to other things that aren’t helpful. Its not google’s fault. Its not the programmers fault. Its the jackass spammers.
My 2c
Lets step back for a couple minutes and take a look at the big picture. Okay Apple’s PR and leadership did not respond well. Given the beating they are getting this week, they’ll probably learn from the lesson.
Answers — voice recognition and a new Internet search service. Question — name two technologies that are difficult to implement and take a long time to perfect.
Now we know why Apple is building giant data centers. What Apple is attempting with SIRI is huge and it is very difficult. The fact it works as well as it does is actually pretty impressive.
My Android phone still can not make any sense of anything I say to it. I turned off the voice recognition. It simply does not work. It was created by Google and a small army of their PhD’s, Google already has huge data centers and a huge Internet search service.
SIRI in its current, very imperfect form scared the crap out of Google.
You’re a little cuckoo. Siri is in beta. You obviously don’t own an iPhone 4s otherwise you’d know. Go to http://www.apple.com/Siri and you’ll see the beta sign. Apple keynote address also said it is in beta.
Talk about not wanting to communicate properly. This whole issue is about abortion. People are making a big deal about this because they want to push their abortion agenda. SIRI does not respond to everything appropriately but no one is making a big deal about that, it is only when their abortion agenda is not being pushed forward that they make a big stink.
The reason things don’t come up when you put abortion is because all the people offering abortions don’t call them abortions they use euphemisms like choice and family planning. They don’t call them that because they are not comfortable with the terms.
To bring pin this on Apple, a most liberal-minded company, is ludicrous. Bob, to have missed the BETA thing which was clear as a bell from day one makes it look like you are pushing your own agenda here. I love your writings and have been reading them for years but I think you missed it big time on this one or you are just trying to push your own abortion agenda.
There is no such thing as an abortion agenda!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a murder agenda it’s called war and capital punishment and it is pushed by the same people that push the “anti choice agenda” and i suspect you are one of them. All life is “innocent”
I neither like war nor capital punishment.
I knew that Siri is a beta version. Apple has said so from the start.
My wife knew.
My kid knew.
One of our dogs knew. (The other doesn’t care about tech.)
But forgetting that, just what could Apple have said here that wouldn’t piss some group off for some reason?
Besides, they really *do* live in glass houses.
What a shortsighted, trusting, one-track-mind group of people. There’s more to this than the technology; there’s the consequence of tainted search results.
My mother doesn’t know beta. She doesn’t know option. Neither does yours. We SHOULD be constantly questioning any company providing these services. WE. The people who know better. You and I. Look beyond what every news site is saying and make your own decision on whether it’s wise to trust MegaCorp to do right by you.
Hound them, that’s what I say. Make them stammer and stutter, or let them be silent and condemn themselves. Or take that silence as wisdom if you don’t know any better.
Some of you trust anything thrown your way. All hail Apple.
Why is nobody, anywhere, mentioning the most obvious & important aspect of this story: Steve Jobs was adopted! If Steve Jobs had been aborted there would be no iPhone, no iPad, no Siri.
Also, has anyone considered that there might be legal ramifications? What if some 14 year old girl asks Siri to find her an abortion clinic and gets an abortion without her parents knowledge or consent. It is not unthinkable that her parents could end up suing Apple… Stranger things have happened.
Why is it taken for granted that Apple should be in the business of facilitating abortions? What actually is Apple’s business? Do they want to be in the business of facilitating abortions? What if they don’t? What about providing alternatives like counseling & adoption services (even if they are still providing abortion clinic info)? What responsibility does Apple share in any of this? That is where the conversation needs to go.
Really Really This is an issue?
So any time i cannot find exactly what i want then it is a conspiracy by apple. And i should get a response from apple that satisfies me. Really Really
So you think that apple should have the perfect, exact, and “what you want to hear” for everything anyone complains about. Even moronic things like this.
If steve was here he would tell you to pound salt!!!
if i had a nickel for every time google or yahoo returned pages of garbage in response to a request id be a trillionaire. Why are you not giving them a hard time??? Many times they return crap or wrong results (most likely because of profit motive) for searches.
I usually enjoy your writing and insight but this is insane!!!!!!
This was my point exactly. So why would Cringley, who otherwise writes coherent and interesting articles, deviate so far, if not to side with or defend the “pro-choice” movement?
Your assessment of the Apple corporate mindset is spot on. I worked for the company twice, once in Cupertino and once in an Apple Store, and I can tell you that the foul whiff of cultishness is even stronger behind the scenes, particularly in the stores. I could not stomach it, nor could anyone with a mind of their own. As Leo Laporte said, “Steve Jobs would not have worked for Steve Jobs.”
People who find Apple stores “creepy” are the same people who denied for years that Microsoft wasn’t, well, “creepy.”
Not working for Steve Jobs is not the same as not working for Apple.
At our company we have clients who complain. . . A LOT. About everything they can think of. (Usually clients who represent the least amount of profit.) It’s just puffed-up self-importance and it costs us money. Do we address their complaints — of course. But if we fix the problem FAST, because we can, WE DON’T TELL THEM. We give them a reasonable timeline (something else they can complain about) then deliver, on time, what they requested.
Were we to drop everything and deal with these “problem clients” ASAP that is all we would be doing. We would be empowering the least important of our clients at our expense and the expense of other, reasonable, rewarding and satisfied clients.
Steve Jobs, sick as a dog, dropped everything, fled from his rest in Hawaii, and returned to work to address Antennagate — arguably a bigger non-issue than this Siri nonsense. And it still wasn’t “enough” for the “critics.”
Also, fwiw, Apple-haters are creepier and full up with their own brand of. . . flavor. . . than the college students earning a living by providing top-shelf customer service. Here’s a clue: Find fault with the products and the service, not the PR dept. And don’t try to psycho-analyze the clientele. If you’re smart enough and insightful enough to do that properly you’d be a famous novelist or something, not a net-addicted geek.
None of which applies to Mr. Cringely, whose article, while off-base, pretty much reflects the current anti-Apple PR generated by Apple’s competitors.
There’ll be a different non-story next month.
what a waste of space
Google Maps only recently added my in-laws’ house to their database. My father-in-law was unable to use Google Maps to provide directions for parties, guests, etc.
Why did Google hate my in-laws so much to ERASE their house from our planet or, worse still, not even acknowledge their existence?
Why did Google hate them so?
(I mean, other than the obvious reasons.)
Am I the only one that thinks there are some questions that you should be asking someone other than Siri?
“Siri, where can I have a heart transplant?” might be another one.
Also, I have to wonder how many
Is this really a problem? Will somebodies life get destroyed if Google (or Siri) gives bad search data. If you are looking for Mexican food and Siri send you to a pizza parlor, life isn’t over. Don’t eat there. Same for abortion clinics. If Siri sent you to the same pizza parlor to get an abortion, ITS A MISTAKE. Its not a big deal. Why is this a surprise and why does it matter?
I’m surprised that people think Cringely is drinking the (anti-Apple) koolaid. Nothing about this article seems even particularly debatable to me. Apple has indeed been extremely secretive as a purposeful strategy; I’ve talked to a well-placed person in Apple who has explicitly said this, noting how they are kept in the dark internally despite their role (no, I will not divulge further, it simply isn’t appropriate to this person or their job security – and they were not, I should point out, complaining really or being “anti-Apple,” this person clearly loved/still loves their company and is quite passionate about their products, purpose, and services). And the effects of a highly-siloed, anti-collaborative environment manifest exactly as we have seen both before Jobs’ departure and since.
I suggest that anyone who thinks Cringely’s perspective is somehow completely unfounded or without any merit are rather of the “fan-boy” variety that refuses to engage in honest and open discussion. Which, I should add, is not to say one should agree with Cringely or that there aren’t opposing viewpoints of clear merit; rather I am simply suggesting that the evidence of Apple’s secrecy – whether that is good, bad, or at play in this particular instance (though even if it is not, it is certainly fodder for reasonable debate) – is rather clear and thus it is certainly reasonable, whether correct in the final analysis, to propose as Cringely proposes.
That said, for the purposes of full disclosure, I am a fan of Apple’s design and marketing, but very much not a fan of the way their products and services are deployed (I find it a rather walled garden approach, too closed, increasingly not unlike the way early Microsoft built certain aspects of their line), nor a fan of what I consider Apple’s (effective) ethos, and I have little respect for Jobs as a business leader and person (aside from my mighty respect for his abilities as a designer and marketer, as aforementioned implicitly in that respect for Apple as a whole).
Reading through these comments, I get the impression many people are disagreeing not with what Cringely actually said but with the point that Apple is deliberately misdirecting results. Cringely’s article isn’t about the actual usefulness, accuracy, ability, or even whether Apple is deliberately endorsing particular values or ideological statements with Siri (in fact he explicitly says otherwise); his point is about Apple’s way of reacting. The opaqueness, the obfuscation, the inability to admit wrong even potentially, that is what as far as I can see this article is about – and these are really ongoing issues for the company (and of course, no, they are not unique to Apple by ANY means). Comments like “it’s in beta” have nothing to do with this issue.
Sure the comment “it’s in beta” is pertinent. Beta suggests that there are potential issues that are yet to be discovered and users should be prepared to encounter and accept non-intended outcomes during this phase of release. Given how Apple has *never* released a beta product (to my knowledge, and probably would not have if Jobs had been ambulatory) they clearly wanted users to be prepared for potential outcomes they could not foresee. This was likely in relation to load handling, usage patterns, and third-party results. Good call on their part, I suggest.
Final comment: Other than this defense of a company that has delivered truly great information-handling tools for more than a generation, I truly believe that Apple users don’t care about the childish wars that the media create to justify their own existence.
We (the users) like the products: they deliver solid results, and they do it for YEARS and YEARS. What’s to dislike? It’s the hyenas in the media that create this spectre of a competition. It only exists until someone uses an Apple product and is willing to let go of their need to hack their devices. Once they accept that a stock Apple product is the straightest path to trouble-free processing, there’s no looking back. The rest of the palaver is manufactured nonsense.
After 34 years at IBM, Apple is beginning to look very familiar to me!
I call bullshit too. Mainly becauses Planned Parenthood is not listed under “Abortion”. Do a search for Planned Parenthood, and Siri via Yelp finds it. This was a non story before Bob wrote about it. And no, I don’t have drink the Apple Kool Aid to criticize bobs argument. That is one Internet meme that should have been retired long ago. It’s an a classic ad hominem and one of weakest forms of reasoning.
“accepting responsibility”, “fixing the problem”. If planned parenthood don’t call themselves or advertise themselves as abortion clinics, which you have to think must be a deliberate choice on their part, why should Yelp or Siri arbitrarily choose to tag them with that label?
Non story. Nothing to fix. Get a grip.
Yes, it has always been clearly stated Siri was at a beta stage. Not in the ads, mind you, but at the unveiling, and everywhere else… Guess the 1.0 will appear with the iPad 3.
That “Apple Time” you speak of, a delayed and measured response to a “crisis” was established under Steve Jobs. Remember that Antenna Gate ? Steve *finally* calling a conf to explain how to handle the iPhone, and then announcing the free distribution of bumpers ? It does not always works, but at least, that “Apple Time” is a good way to extract the company from that irrational, hectic treatment it gets in the news. Apple can’t bring wood to its own bonfire, it has to issue a single, clear statement without the hint of an error. The press will vilify this, because it does not sell much paper, but Apple’s customers are what matters…
In my view, bigger than that Abortion Clinic “problem”, was the CarrierIQ “scandal” which started on Android products, and menaced to contemn iOS, even if it is much less a concern on that side (limited reports, clearly stated to the user, easily turned off). Here Apple reacted quickly, when nobody asked them anything, putting itself on the frontline… and pushing Android back in those reports… If they had applied that “Apple time”, perhaps they would have issued a later statement, telling how Apple integration model allows a control on these privacy concerns, and highlighting its customer service superiority on this whole issue.
I think your point of view is one from the press, not from Apple interest.
I must disagree. I waste far too much time reading tech news, and I had no inkling that it’s supposed to be in beta. Returning to Cringely’s point, if anything has changed, it’s not the sudden appearance of a leadership vacuum. I think Jobs’s death has somehow disrupted the reality distortion field enough that people are beginning to notice what’s long been apparent. Despite my disagreement with your contention, I have long assumed that all, or most, Apple products are either at or just out of the beta stage when they hit the stores. As a rule, I won’t buy anything from them until the early adopters–whom I call beta testers, find all the problems. It’s unusual to find not only the loyal fanboys, but even Apple itself validating that assumption.
Absolutely nothing wrong with this article at all. Very good info on a problem not all of us have encountered. Bob gives us a lot of info we wouldn’t otherwise connect (not every one here is an industry expert as it appears from the comments).
As for Apple. Despite the best plans they no longer have that unique head which would either have added to the problem or cleared it up immediately. At least something would have happened – even if it was only visible internally I suppose. The confidence was there.
We’re all grown-ups, right? So what’s the best thing to do? What we tell our kids? Admit to your mistakes, put them right, apologise if necessary and maintain respect.
OK, I’m sure not even SJ did that all the time, but I feel sure I was confident something real was being done, more than I do now.
Let’s hope lessons are being learned.
Bob you really blew it. You look clueless, except mainly to the clueless. Can’t imagine that is your target audience.
I have always thought that the comments here were on a higher level than the rest of the internet. More thoughtful. More intelligent.
I stand corrected.
Spot on, Mr. Cringely. Thank you.
If the issue then is that Apple in its post-Jobs era should institute “reforms”: less secrecy, more open platforms, more warm, cozy, friendly demeanor and better PR, and I don’t know what else, I would take an almost contrary stance. Everything Apple has done, or hasn’t done, has had no demonstrable negative effect on their success, and indeed, has contributed to it. Obviously. The first serious internal leaks or signs of compromised platform security would be very bad harbingers of a flawed management and investors would have every right to be very concerned. I’m for business as usual, and this particular column has made a mountain out of a molehill. But, Bob, I am addicted.
Disingenuous crap designed to plug the “lost” interview. Apple stated clearly at launch that Siri was beta product. Reinforced that statement when the first gaps of overload were experienced, and are standing firm today, and rightfully so.
Their answer makes perfect sense. They do not keep or maintain the directories or classifications used to find local outlets for their searches. (Search PP by name, and not by the galvanizing term nobody wants to be associated with and you succeed immediately.)
This is a tempest in a teapot. Someone with an agenda wants to find something to beat Apple with (a growing list of competitors, haters, zealots) and has chosen the divisive lightening rod of “abortion” to do it. The disingenuous part is how Bob usually sees through these thinly-veiled attempts at FUD, but now, with a dog in the fight, he chooses to pile on. Good luck getting that credibility back.
Craven opportunism, a hallmark of American society since… the beginning.
This is the puritanical USofA! The people looking for abortion clinics on the internet are Pro-Life extremists, and many abortion clinics are hiding from them.
Because Siri does not equate abortion with the pseudonyms-du-jour for abortion, the only results Siri shows are the clinics that want to be found, the ones with the word abortion in their ads.
Who is the spokesperson for Apple? Who is the face of Apple? Tim Cook will never be that person. They need to get somebody to step up. That’s the issue. There’s no human we can look to and award our trust or hold accountable.
Very disappointing article. Apple does occasionally release beta products *yes, even under Steve … see Facetime.
Aside from the fact that the whole abortion thing is a non-issue (it is a general search problem unrelated to Siri), a “beta” release cuts Apple an enormous amount of slack. They should use this slack to focus on releasing a final candidate, not on responding to hyped-up non-issues.
Also, Bob not being aware that Siri was in beta is stunning to me. It wasn’t hidden anywhere (it says on the iPhone Siri page: “Siri is available in Beta only on iPhone 4S …” It also was mentioned several times during the launch of the iPhone 4S.
For someone who claims to have some insight into technology, this really puts him into the amateur category.
Is the somewhere we can protest to get revised iPhones? The only reason I got the 4swas Siri. It was not sold as a beta. D
Actually I knew that Siri is in Beta because they explained at the press release that it would be released in beta. It doesn’t have a big “beta” tag on it in the way that Google had done Gmail for years but it was stated quite clearly that it is in beta. Many were surprised at this because it was quite un-Apple to do anything in a beta state but I think that it was decided that something this complex needed to go through a wide beta release to figure out the many little things which get missed in limited testing. People use things in ways not thought of and perhaps this is one such example.
Steve Jobs visited me in a dream last night.
He looked healthy enough; his cheeks were apple-rosy.
He said, “Everything will be all right.”
The alarm on my $80 per year Samsung Tracfone woke me up.
Bob,
When you get it wrong, you man up and acknowledge it. And you have for years. Your ethical nature is one of many reasons I look forward to your posts every week.
-Dave Marcoot
“Why should it take that long to fix? It shouldn’t and it won’t, but Apple appears to not want to empower us by communicating honestly. ”
If Apple is being opaque and obtuse, how can you possibly have any evidence that it shouldn’t take a few weeks to fix? Even assuming that they admit in private that things are fouled up, if the issue is something that requires a major refactoring of the code it could be a few weeks easy. It may not just be a search engine client issue, it could be deeper in the data.
What are some successful companies that are willing to sacrifice their cash cows? Gore-Tex is the only company that comes to my mind. They keep on spinning off smaller companies, which makes sense. It would be great to see a software company to do something similarly.
Hey Mods! Spam alert!
Writing from Southern California, where Siri couldn’t find “Abortion” but quickly located “Planned Parenthood” (even pointing out, “It’s not far from you!”).
I’ll let those with more expertise argue over whether Apple has ever released a beta in the past (MobileMe would seem to qualify, in performance if not name). It seems to me that Siri is called “beta” because the only way to refine the program was to release it into the world. As I understand it, Siri is constantly learning and improving itself, so of course it would start as “beta” and grow from there.
Oh no, a non-intelligent computer based search that doesn’t quite get the results correct, stop the press this is an outrage! Seriously people need to get a grip of this is news worthy.
Bob,
Thanks for getting the Flav-r-aid reference right. Kool-aid has be taking the rap for far too long.
Here is an interesting sentence from the wiki describing Kool-aid: “Film footage shot inside the compound prior to the events of November shows Jones opening a large chest in which boxes of both Flavor Aid and Kool-Aid are visible.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid#In_popular_culture
Will the Lost Interview be out on DVD???? Saw it twice it was so good.
How to make money with MMR ebooks…
[…]I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Damage Control – Cringely on technology[…]…
La Pavoni Professional…
[…]I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Damage Control – Cringely on technology[…]…
This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. What another propaganda for Atheism? All the Spaghetti Monsters are going to BURN in HELL. This isn’t even funny and it is ludicrous. This is as ridiculous as creation starting from aliens and space ships. Who thinks this crap up? We have enough sin in this world and now we have to deal with believers in a fictitious character and there has to be a connection to God, our Father in Heaven. I pity all of you lost people and your foolish beliefs and one day you will regret mocking God to stand up for something so unbelievably stupid. What’s wrong with you people? Seriously, this is nuts and anyone who believes or supports this falsehood is questionably psychotic.