I thought google labs was shut down a number of years ago
Not in the least! I use tons of the features of Labs (it's under Settings -> Labs) in GMail.
I wasn't a big fan of gmail going though my mail text to determine how they might want to spam me with advertisements.
I actually enjoy the overall integration of services offered by Google. I am one of those willing to give up marketing information on myself to use a service for absolutely no charge. When you consider the cost of similar products to provide all the services that Google does, I just can't justify the costs or the lower quality of those services. Google Now is honestly one of my favorite applications on my Samsung Galaxy SII. It's one place where I can find:
-Current weather where I'm at (plenty of other apps that would do it, but very clean)
-Current scores for all the teams I like
-Notifications about items I've purchased that have been shipped/delivered (scans my GMail for tracking numbers)
-Traffic to/from our clients, with alerts if it's going to take me longer than usual to get to a meeting due to traffic
-Nearby restaurants (great when I'm traveling for business)
-much much more!
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of apps that would serve each of those functions well (except the traffic alert part since it involves calendar integration), but Google does it all in ONE APP! With a clean and easy interface. In fact, it hides most of those cards except when it knows I'll need them, but they're only one click away if I do. Not to mention I can do all kinds of searching from within the app as well. To me, it's finally an app that does what apps SHOULD do, help people and make their lives easier, NOT
more complicated with technology! And all of that for free! It wouldn't be able to do half of those functions without me providing the data they collect as a "fee" for their services, so I am willing to make what I consider a fair trade: info for services.
If it's something I really want to keep private, well that's when I use other independent services!