When I go places, Google will ask me questions about the places I’ve been. Today I went to the post office, while carrying my Android based phone. When I get home, it says, “answer quick questions to help others.”
Google is remarkably good at knowing exactly which locations I’ve visited.
I find the questions interesting. I think that Google is using the data for machine learning.
Here are some of the questions I’ve answered:
About the Post Office:
Is there wheelchair accessible parking?
Is this place easy to notice from a vehicle in normal traffic?
Is there a wheelchair accessible entrance?
About the Local Grocery Store:
Can you get plastic bags here?
Can you get grapes here?
Is the parking here free?
About the local restaurant:
Is there a wheelchair accessible restroom?
Does this place serve spicy food? (This seemed like an unclear question. Are they asking if this place specializes in spicy food or just has hot sauce?)
Is this a good place to bring a young child?
Would you call this a cozy place?
Is this place good for comfort food?
Does this place have good views?
Can you get coffee here?
Does this place have good desert options?
Is this place good for groups?
Is this place popular for lunch?
Does this place accept credit cards?
“Can you get…?” questions for hardware stores, warehouse stores, etc
A lot of the questions for stores are “Can you get…?” questions. Most often they’re about a type of thing, but sometimes for specific brands. Here are some questions we got today.
Can you get macaroons here?
Can you get utility knives here?
Can you get products from Supreme here?
Can you get the Apple watch here?
Can you get sports shoes here?
Can you get water here?
Can you get donuts here?
Can you get cheese curds here?
Can you get house plants here?
Can you get products from Wonder Bread here?
Can you get baskets here?
Can you get power strips here?
Can you get sunglasses here?
Can you get cacti here?
Questions about parking and cost are common.
Is there a parking lot?
Does this place accept credit cards?
Can you go here for less than $10?
So, what’s the point?
Yeah, this may be boring to anyone but me, but I’m just curious about the source of these questions and find it all quite interesting. Google is working on artificial intelligence and I can help by answering these questions.
These are questions best answered by humans and Google needs human help to level up. This signifies an interesting point in time. Why don’t stores just upload their inventory into google maps?
I can imagine that a store that sells both Apple watches and cacti is inherently a different kind of store because those products are so different from each other.
Quick yes/no answers to short questions are probably going into tomorrow’s machine learning algorithms. Conclusions will be made, and Google will get even better at answering our questions. They’re using their network of humans to build the AI of the future.
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