Bing Can Now Converse
September 15, 2014
Microsoft’s Bing is spinning, I mean, sporting a nifty new feature; The Next Web reveals, “Microsoft Updates Bing’s Conversational Understanding to Let You Ask Follow-up Questions, Just Like Cortana.” “Conversational understanding”, huh? I suppose that’s one way to put it. Cortana, you may know, is the Windows Phone’s effort to surpass the iPhone’s Siri.
As you might expect, this “follow up question” feature follows a chain of questions, letting users rely on pronouns instead of being forced to repeat keywords. For example, as the article illustrates, after receiving the proper answer to “who is the president of the United States?” a user can type “who is his wife?” and receive the answer, “Michelle Obama.” One could go on like that all afternoon: “How tall is she?” the First Lady stands 5 feet, 11 inches tall. “Who is her brother?” It’s Craig Robinson. And so on. Writer Emil Protalinski notes:
“This is a feature that is borrowed directly from Cortana. This shouldn’t surprise anyone given that Cortana is largely powered by Bing, so it makes sense that Microsoft would want to pull the other way as well. Since Cortana now handles search on Windows Phone, this feature won’t need to come to Bing for Windows Phone, but Microsoft may want to offer it on Android and iOS.
“Google Search on mobile has similar conversational abilities, which were arguably popularized with demos and commercials showing off the Moto X, when you are asking questions via voice. It’s worth noting, however, that Google Search itself does not offer the same functionality on the Web nor on mobile while typing.”
Protalinski observes that Microsoft makes a habit of outstripping Google to market. This time, it is doubtful this one feature will swing many Android users Windows’ way. Still, Microsoft says more advances are around the corner. We’ll stay tuned.
Cynthia Murrell, September 15, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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