Cortana has answered 6 billion voice queries since voice querie launch

[steven36]

Despite all the doom-and-gloom analysis surrounding Microsoft’s Windows 10 and its slow adoption by consumers, there’s at least one bright spot for the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant. Since the launch of Windows 10, Cortana has served nearly six billion voice search queries, indicating that those who do upgrade are finding Microsoft’s virtual assistant quite useful.

 

 

Previously, Cortana was only available primarily to users of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, although the company did offer Cortana apps for both Android and iOS. According to Microsoft’s Lynne Kjolso, the addition of Windows 10 resulted in a 60 percent year-over-year increase in Cortana usage.

 

This news is also of interest to Apple, which will debut Siri for the first time on the desktop when MacOS Sierra launches in the fall. While some may have seen it as one of those features that have a definite cool factor — but likely limited practical real-world use — Microsoft’s success with Cortana on the desktop makes it seem like users are ready, and perhaps have been, for virtual assistants on the desktop.

 

Kjolso was speaking to attendees at the Search Marketing Expo in Seattle, and atlked in depth on what the transition from traditional text search to voice-based searching might mean for the industry at large. “That shift from typing in a query to a voice query and natural language is happening, I think, much faster than we anticipated,” she told attendees.

 

Microsoft is also using its success with Cortana to push forward something that the company refers to as “conversation as a platform,” which Kjolso says is a reference to how to “get stuff done” through the combination of Cortana and bots.

 

One example given — and previously demoed by Microsoft at its Build conference — was active listening by Cortana during a Skype conversation. If the conversation turns to, say, a trip to Ireland, Cortana could start looking for flights during the times you talk about in the conversation, then deliver results to you without you having to directly ask for them.

 

“If we can power those messaging conversations with the machine learning and intelligence of Cortana, plus bots, that creates a really rich, fast, modern experience of getting stuff done through the power of search, and we feel that’s where the experience is heading,” Kjolso said. “That’s a space that we intend to lead in.”

 

The Source

[Karlston]

Hmmm.. is that genuinely impressive or just another big number from Microsoft's Marketing Machine intended to sound impressive? Let's dig deeper...

 

6 billion Cortana voice queries and Microsoft claims over 300 million devices with Windows 10. So that means an average of 20 (6 billion / 300 million) Cortana voice queries per Windows 10 installation in nearly 1 year, or a little under 1 Cortana voice query every 2 weeks per Windows 10 installation.

 

Now it's easier to judge for yourself if that's impressive or just more deceptive Microsoft marketing...

[TheMountain]

Cortana? Exiled her before she had a chance to open her yap. 

[heyyahblah]

6 Billion searches, wow ....... are we (not us that don't use it of course) ever stupid for letting it become self-aware. Morons. I love how tenfourms say its the best thing ever, along with Edge. LMAO. They will be the 1st to go.

 

 

Yes ....... 6 billion ................. feed me more pl0x

 

 

[steven36]

On 6/24/2016 at 10:24 PM, heyyahblah said:

6 Billion searches, wow ....... are we (not us that don't use it of course) ever stupid for letting it become self-aware. Morons. I love how tenfourms say its the best thing ever, along with Edge. LMAO. They will be the 1st to go.

 

I don’t  use none of the free modern  apps myself when on Windows 10 or when I was on Windows 8, they yet to make anything worth buying as far apps and none of the free modern apps that work in the cloud  are really free they cost  you personal info . Some people dont care about privacy so they like these apps .  Most all good free apps on windows are legacy software  .   43% of everything sold in the Windows store is games and all other categorises don’t have much sales . But Microsoft is making money off that store that's part of the reason they want you on Windows 10 in hopes you will buy something  you only buy a  pc once every 5 to 8 years with new O/S software  but they get a commission for everything they sell out of the store also they make money from data and ads . So if you care about privacy you need to do some tweaking and  learn basic firewall skills  . I don’t think host blocks work so great for port 443 SSL .

[heyyahblah]

All I can do is tweak the O/S and block rules & settings man. I have no other options otherwise. My processor will stop receiving W7 updates 2017/2018 supposedly (Skylake) and Kaby Lake will not support W7 at all. So its like, I have to keep my Legacy Tower (AMD Phenom II X4) alive as long as possible if I want to use legacy operating systems.

 

I still like to play older games here and there (mainly RA2, C&C2, etc) and a lot of them don't like to run properly since W8. W7 (with tweaking) was the last good O/S that all that software from 2000,2001,2002 ran good on. I am not a fan so much of virtual machines and settings, I perfer playing in a native environment.

 

I think I will always have to keep legacy hardware around if I want to remissness good old gaming days, just not connect to the internet on them, lol.

 

I'm still holding onto a laptop from 2008 (that came bundled w/ Vista) and upgraded the ram to 4GB DDR2 ages ago for $20, and put XP on it, to have it for legacy gaming. Has vga, hdmi out, good enough for me. As long as the mobo holds out, I should be ok with it.