It is why a company like apple worry me, I’m sure we have all heard the funny story of when you asked Siri what the best phone in the world is and the response is the Lumia 900. this is based upon the search the engine Wolfram Alphad results and the reviews given for the phone. Now I know this is early days for the phone and some of the reviews may not be balanced (apparently largely based upon Best buy reviews) but in any event that is what Siri comes back with based upon its search.

Well up until recently, it appears that apple have overridden Siri to produce different answers. Regardless of whether the 900 is any good or not can it be right that your searches are overridden by Apple because they don’t like the result? (similar to the abortion issue last year true or not we will never know for sure)

Worrying? Hardly. It's an Apple service on an Apple phone, they can do what they want.

I'm not sure your average iPhone user needs tyo ask what the best phone the world is.... they will surely already believe they know the answer to this question?

I tell you what is worrying about Siri, how the UK apple advert is getting away with claiming that someone can stand inside the UK and ask Siri a location related question. It doesn't work in this country yet, but is shown working in the advert.

which ad? i've seen the ads and don't recall it showing a business related location result.

it does show the "find my friends" location result though, which does work in the UK.

every time i see the apple reality distortion field at work it amazes me and it really shouldn't.

i don't think this is a big deal, it's a daft and subjective question. but to say it's an apple service on an apple phone so they can do what they like is bone chillingly naive.

So you are content for apple to dictate what they think the results of your web search should be? rather than what they are... you have no problem with that.

Yet I presume you have no problem with google dictating what they think the results should be then?

there is a fundamental difference. and this is so obvious i can't believe i am having to say it. between google using abstract maths and a multitude of other methods in order to best answer your search queries. and apple change the results of such queries to change the truth.

it's all about where you draw the line. i don't see anything especially wrong with this, but it sets a precedent.

money has a lot to do with how high up the google search results you are.

the "new" SIRI answer to the question doesn't mention any particular phone, it answers it with a question that makes you decide which is "best".

You do realise that the results on google are NOT just decided by such algorithms?
For one, googles own services and websites are automatically bumped to the top of searches where they are relevant.
And then you have the whole sponsored results thing.

all true.

like i said i don't think this is a big deal. but it is a legitimate question where you draw the line with what is or isn't acceptable when it comes to apple changing reality.

siri do other users of the iphone complain of loss of signal when they hold there phone in their left hand?

the thing is, "best" is subjective.
one persons best is another persons crap.

just because "best buy" says the nokia lumia 900 is the best phone, does that make it fact?
in reality, it's probably easier (and probably safer) for any of these services (on any phone) to give an answer that "pleads the fifth".

has anyone tried the new Galaxy S3 service to see what response you get when asking the same question?

the answer to what is the best phone in october was "the one you are holding" so apple have not changed anything. It all depends how you ask the questions.

they have changed it. They changed it yesterday after the story broke.

Apple have overridden the software to give and answer they prefer. Nothing to do with how the results were originally gained, nothing to do with what is the best phone.

The fact a compamy has decided the results generated from a search engine are not acceptable so have changed them to something they prefer and people are saying this is fine

If you think about it, Siri's voice answer has to be random at times. There certainly is no one answer to that question.

And obviously knowing the source of the answer corruption was imminent.

But have they actually overridden it? Or is it just speculation?

Siri only gets results from a web search if you specifically ask for a web search, or it suggests one and you accept, and then it opens a Google search in the browser for the relevant term.

Some encyclopaedic content does come from Wolfram Alpha, but I don't think product reviews from Best Buy are a valid source of information so I have no worries with this being excluded. I'd rather get a tongue-in-cheek answer back than being told that a product is 'best' because 4 users said so on Best Buy (which is the case for the Nokia).

Dont have a 4s but many reports (including comments from Nokia) are that it now returns a preset number of responses to the question since yesterday after all the attention it received. So I would venture this is not speculation.

It is not about this specific question though is it, one to which no one really cares to be honest. It is about the fact that it is changed to a predifined response because the result is not acceptable

that's just speculation though.
no-one here will know why (or even if) results have changed.

the "vague" answer it gives is probably best all-round. it doesn't response with apple, and it doesn't respond with any other manufacturer.

as previously said, what makes best buy reviews the default source for what phone is "best" ?

The way I see it is that the answer has been excluded because it isn't reliable, not altered because it isn't acceptable.

If there was evidence that answers were being deliberately altered or manipulated then I think that would be troubling, but, IMO, there's no evidence of malicious intent.

that is simply not what happened.

Doesn't make anything the default, right, wrong or anything but again though not the issue surely!! That is how the results were obtained but then changed... and for what other reason would they be changed if not acceptable?...

Probably just me that finds this a worrying development you all seem happy to accept results predefined by what apple thinks acceptable hey-ho