Steve Smith talks about why a company would lock their product to applications on their own platform.
Episode #6-33 released on May 1, 2016
The big news right now is that Microsoft locks in Bing.com search engine with the Cortana service. I, like many, prefer Google. There are many reasons for this, but the most notable is the shear accuracy, and better results returned from Google, especially for the way most people search the Internet, currently.
Now, is it a bad thing that Microsoft locked Cortana to Bing.com, and more importantly, the Edge Browser? This is a point we need to consider since a lot of my own web-site visitors tend to use Google Chrome, and those who use search engines, usually use Google to find my sites.
Let us think about this, Cortana is deeply tied to the Windows 10 Operating System, it has access to your files, location data, what you type, what you ask, has a history on you, and if you have a Microsoft account with payment information, and easy way to provide you will single click access to various media items like movies, music, games, etc. To be honest, if I am programming software to achieve deeply tied tasks, I want as much control as possible to everything to achieve this.
Now, before we murder Microsoft, let us look at Apple. While, it hasn't come to the OSX platform, Siri only uses Safari, and we can easily suggestion that the same will apply to the desktop. Siri, much like Cortana, has a lot of access to files, music, apps, etc. in your iPhone, and iPad. Every operating system is different, but the way programmers will attempt to achieve ways functions will be with applications they know will be installed in the operating system. This is why you can't uninstall Safari from the iPhone, or iPad. The same holds true for Microsoft Edge, as there is no way to find the option to remove Microsoft Edge from Windows 10. This means it will be infinitely easier for programmers from Microsoft to code Cortana to rely entirely on Edge, and Bing. Bing being a property belonging to Microsoft.
Now, if Microsoft allowed users to change the browser and search engine, what are things that could happen, or not work? For one, one click payment may be impossible depending on the user. Location data may be unavailable without Cortana's knowledge, where the integration of it from Windows 10 lends itself to at least know if it is turned on. Searching parameters can be different between search engines, or worst, change. An even more disastrous event could be a user uninstalling the default Browser and attempting to use Cortana for a search, which would cause a program exception, also known as a Blue Screen of Death, an error alert, etc. Needless to say, something will crash, or cause the system to respond in a way it can't terminate correctly. While, I do believe programmers may be able to detect the application be removed and then revert to default values, it has happened in previous version of Windows, and there is no reason for it not to happen now, unless it happens to be made part of the protocol to detect changes, or revert changes when applications are uninstalled, as we all know is not always done, when referring to default launching applications in Windows for various file types.
This being all said, for all those who watch me regularly on YouTube, you already know of one important fact, I use Siri rarely, but it works when I ask for her, and I never use Cortana. In fact, Cortana is turned off, on all my computers, because of many issues including random operation of the service interfering in such things such as live streams, and video capture. I hate Bing, and use Google Chrome. So, while I understand why Microsoft would lock Cortana to Edge, and to Bing. While, I understand why the programmers and Microsoft went that route.
Don't be confused, I don't support Cortana, at all. It is not useful as an application, unless it is used on a mobile device, which is the direction that most of these applications are designed for.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions