Search Engine To Change To Bing For Cortana
Search engine options to go. I have just recently found out that the new Cortana digital assistant from Microsoft, will make folks use Bing as the search engine, rather than google or other preferred search engines. They also stated that any search done will be run through their new Edge browser. This may be OK for many people, but I am a big fan of Chrome and the google search engine, I don’t plan on changing any time soon.
Don’t get me wrong Cortana is a great system and has other benefits like searching for files on your computer and opening programs, but for searching online I really want to stick to my favorite search engine. ( I have found that the google voice search option on my iPhone works the best, it actually understands much more of what I say than either Siri or Cortana. Of course it also uses google search engine too).
Microsoft stated that the reason for this was so that users would get more out of search related features included in their products. They also said that they were going to add extra features to Edge and Bing, this was why it made sense to link these programs exclusively to Cortana instead of third party search engines and browsers. They went on to quote “Anything else would be a compromised experience that is less reliable and predictable”. Hmmm!?
But this doesn’t mean that people can’t install the browser and search engine of their choice on their computers, it just means that they won’t be able to integrate them with Cortana. Microsoft seems to be taking some large liberties lately, especially in making users make deliberate choices rather than letting them choose for themselves. Bing may be an Ok search engine, but Google is still very much top of the pile when it comes to search engines, there is probable good reason for it. I read that 90% of searches are carried out via Google and currently only 3% are completed using the Bing search engine. ( I guess this might change slightly with Microsoft forcing users to use Bing ).
So there you have it, it looks very much like Microsoft are taking away many of the freedom of choice options of their previous operating systems. As I have said before I think that Windows 10 is a great operating system, (or at least will be when they have finished using us for beta testers!), but I will be sticking to Windows 7 for the time being. My choice of search engine is important to me, and although I like Cortana and other voice activated apps, I am happy to live without it for a little while longer. I don’t believe that will enhance my computing experience, or increase my computing productivity to any major extent yet, so I am not willing to make the jump! Of course you may disagree, that’s a personal choice. I know that there are many folks out there that just have to have the latest and greatest in technological advances, good luck to you!
I have no doubt that not too far from now all Microsoft users will be forced to use Windows 10, with or without the Bing search engine, which is just the way the software seems to be developing. But at the moment, “mine isn’t broken so I don’t see the point in fixing it!’.
