Don't Know ? Just Ask Cortana..

Tech giants like Apple and Google have given lot of importance to Voice assistants. With the SIRI coming in, Microsoft wants to ensure that it isn’t late for the party and has given Cortana a big push in Windows 10. Cortana was showcased at Windows 10 event held at Redmond. The biggest highlight was Cortana will be coming to desktops as well. At the core, it is similar to what we saw in Windows Phone, but now Cortana is more skilled at natural language, handling your daily appointments and so on.



Improved search is the first and foremost feature of Cortana.It can look up specific Word files or Presentations. It also lets users search for contextual information. For instance, you can look for “videos from September.” It can also go beyond your computer and search for videos or docs from Microsoft’s cloud service – OneDrive.

Another key thing needless to say Cortana learns its users’ tastes and preferences, just like some other voice assistants. There’s a new feature called Notebook that keeps a tab on all the saved information. It also keeps a track of the sports scores, travel, weather and such similar information that you may be interested in. It’s in the Notebook, that you can add other things that you expect Cortana to keep a track.

Sources say Cortana is integrated with Spartan Browser, given that Google has integrated voice-search in Chrome as well. Cortana will bring predictive search into the browser. Cortana also takes dictation. Yes, you can simply dictate an email, now. You can also ask it to play music. In case you are on a page of a hotel/restaurant, it instantly pops up the menu or Maps with directions. In the search bar, it also helps with generating auto complete.

Cortana needless to say just the right move as Windows 10 is expected to bring seamless experience across all Microsoft devices. Microsoft’s move to bring Cortana to desktops  makes perfect sense as voice-assistant are being seen as the future of search.