Cortana is Microsoft\u2019s version of Google Now and Apple\u2019s Siri digital assistant.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s built right into Windows 10 and, while I\u2019ve generally not found it all that useful, it\u2019s a core component of Microsoft\u2019s attempt at making its operating system smarter.<\/p>\n
Starting today, whenever you use Cortana to do a search on Windows 10 that would typically take you to a search engine in a web browser, you will only be able to use Microsoft\u2019s Bing search engine and its Edge browser.<\/p>\n
Until today, you could choose which browser and search engine you wanted to use, but Microsoft is now changing this. Why? It\u2019s all about giving you a better search experience (and surely has nothing to do with getting a bit more market share for Bing and Edge).<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, as Windows 10 has grown in adoption and usage, we have seen some software programs circumvent the design of Windows 10 and redirect you to search providers that were not designed to work with Cortana,\u201d Microsoft says in today\u2019s announcement. \u201cThe result is a compromised experience that is less reliable and predictable.\u201d<\/p>\n
To some degree, that\u2019s true, of course. Bing does offer some features that aren\u2019t available on Google, and Microsoft wants to tie its operating system, personal assistant and web-based search engine closer together. And some search hacks that moved Cortana searches away from Bing and to other search engines probably made Cortana less useful.<\/p>\n
All of this is really more about Bing than Edge \u2014 and Bing isn\u2019t exactly restricted to a specific browser. Still, Microsoft argues it\u2019s all for the good of the users.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe continuity of these types of task completion scenarios is disrupted if Cortana can\u2019t depend on Bing as the search provider and Microsoft Edge as the browser,\u201d Microsoft writes. \u201cThe only way we can confidently deliver this personalized, end-to-end search experience is through the integration of Cortana, Microsoft Edge and Bing \u2014 all designed to do more for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Personally, I don\u2019t like it when an operating system restricts me from using it in whatever way I want to. I don\u2019t use Edge as my default browser, so a program that opens it by default \u2014 with no way of making a change \u2014 is mostly an annoyance.<\/p>\n
You can, of course, still set any browser and search engine as the default in Windows 10 \u2014 all of this only applies to searches from Cortana. It\u2019s still annoying.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Techcrunch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cortana is Microsoft\u2019s version of Google Now and Apple\u2019s Siri digital assistant. It\u2019s built right into Windows 10 and, while I\u2019ve generally not found it all that useful, it\u2019s a core component of Microsoft\u2019s attempt at making its operating system smarter. Starting today, whenever you use Cortana to do a search on Windows 10 that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":210095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n