First there was Apple’s Siri, then Google’s Now, and now Microsoft is introducing their version named Cortana. Let’s see what Microsoft has to bring to the table. Via Search Engine Land:
Cortana appears to be sassy like Siri and can perform many of the functions that Google Now does (providing reminders and notifications regarding dates, meetings and so on). It appears to have numerous manual personalization capabilities as well. Cortana will also interact with and can launch apps on the device (like Siri or Google).
Not sure if I want my phone to sass me when I’m looking for a restaurant. I’m already indecisive to the point I may want to seek therapy, so the last thing I wanna hear is Cortana saying, “You sure you want to eat there? I mean, you just downloaded that diet app. But, it’s up to you.”
What can Siri offer all of the smartphone obsessed people that want something new that the others can’t offer, besides calling you a rock God.
Showing Cortana’s smarts, there was apparently an example of a restaurant search where Cortana offered content from Yelp — Yelp and Microsoft have a deal — rather than Bing. There was also an example of how reminders can be tied to particular individuals.
At its core, Cortana is “powered by Bing” and will “completely replace” the search button on Windows Phones. It thus becomes a voice-search front end to Bing’s index and capabilities for Windows mobile devices.
The Yelp feature is nice, but that’s only a shortcut away from just going to Yelp through a browser. Cortana is obviously going to be powered by Bing, seeing that it’s software from Microsoft. That will surely put people off because of Google’s superior foothold. I use Bing occasionally, and it gets more hate than it deserves.
Microsoft is rolling out Cortana on their Windows 8.1 phones soon and I guess we’ll see how people like it. Let’s just hope they don’t promote it with that Sara Bareilles song. Yeesh!
(Via Search Engine Land)