Upcoming release of Windows 10, codename 19H1, Cortana and search bar are breaking up

[grahamd22]

https://www.howtogeek.com/fyi/cortana-is-leaving-windows-10s-search-bar-but-bing-stays/

[synaesthesia]

Getting there. Bing needs to do one entirely though; in it's current state it should be entirely blocked by all schools. They still need to sort out the right click bug though > (search suggestions/results in start menu don't have the same restrictions as the start menu)

[Arthur]

Microsoft no longer sees Cortana as an Alexa or Google Assistant competitor

 

Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant has fallen behind Google Assistant and Alexa over the past year, and now the software maker is taking a different approach to the competition. Speaking to journalists at a media event earlier this week, attended by The Verge, CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Microsoft no longer sees Cortana as a competitor to Alexa or Google Assistant. “Cortana needs to be that skill for anybody who’s a Microsoft 365 subscriber,” explains Nadella, referencing Microsoft’s new consumer subscription push. “You should be able to use it on Google Assistant, you should be able to use it on Alexa, just like how you use our apps on Android and iOS so that’s at least how we want to think about where it’ll go.”

 

Microsoft has already partnered with Amazon to enable Cortana and Alexa integration, and at the launch of the partnership Nadella compared digital assistants to web browsers that need to be interoperable and access similar information. It’s now clear that Nadella sees Cortana as an app or service that will work across multiple platforms, rather than Microsoft competing in Cortana hardware for consumers. Microsoft will still need to convince Google that Cortana integration is a good idea.

 

Instead of competing with Alexa, Nadella admits that there was a challenge of creating hardware and software that’s unique to compete. Microsoft chose to make Cortana “a valuable skill that somebody who is using Alexa can call,” instead of competing in smart speakers, and that’s probably why we haven’t seen many Cortana speakers.

[LeMarchand]

It's beginning to seem like MS have adopted a new strategy: Just Give Up.

 

Phones, browsers, now digital assistants...

[Norphy]

No, I think that they’ve decided not to throw resources at areas where they’ve already fallen behind.

 

Alexa and Google Assistant are everywhere. Cortana is just in Windows. Add to that, Windows 10 gathers pretty extensive metrics about who uses what and it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if those metrics showed that Cortana barely gets used. If that’s the case, why throw good money after bad? Invest your resources into in something that will provide a return.