Google Now: Is It Magic, or Just Plain Creepy?

One of the reasons I decided to make the switch from an iPhone to an Android phone—in addition to the freedom it allowed me from Apple’s (AAPL) walled garden—was that I was interested in trying Google’s (GOOG) version of “augmented reality” search, namely Google Now. Although I’ve used it periodically over the past few months, the utility of it really started to hit home while I was on a recent trip to Europe and relied on my smartphone as a lifeline.