You're at a dinner party, and conversation stalls over an urgent question - like how tall is the Statue of Liberty? What do you do? You pull out your phone and Google the answer, of course.
But, as Claire Cain Miller reports in Monday's New York Times, although Google knows it is the uninvited guest at social gatherings everywhere, it wants to figure out new, less intrusive ways to join the party - as varied as voice search, Internet-connected glasses and other wearable computers, or dining room tables outfitted with screens.
It's all part of what's known as ubiquitous computing or intelligence augmentation - the idea that computers will no longer be devices we turn on, but will be so integrated into our everyday environment that we can ask them to do things without ever lifting a finger.
For example, in Apple's new iPhone, Siri, the voice-activated assistant, can answer questions about current movies, sports and restaurants. And Microsoft is experiment ing with computers that understand gestures and voice, like gloves with sensors, Bing voice search on the Xbox and gesture recognition on the Kinect. But Google is at the forefront on these efforts.
Google is developing mobile search apps for Android phones and iPhones that let people ask questions aloud and listen to Google answer in a vaguely robotic woman's voice. In May, the company introduced a quicker way to answer trivia-type queries in search.
And although Google Glass, eyeglass frames that let people use the Web on a tiny screen near their temples, are not yet for sale, they will let people find answers without reaching into their pockets. So will other wearable computers that Google plans to experiment with, like watches.
Meanwhile, how tall is the Statue of Liberty? 305 feet.
Â
