Cortana pops up in Bing personalization settings

I think they've said why already.

What is their reason because I wasn't aware of their explanation.

Aww shidd, ITS ABOUT TO GO DOWN

IT'S HAPPENING!!!!

Remember: You gotta slow down to go down! ;)

It's about to get real!

Its nearly here...

Just coming

So, the name Cortana is official then.

Seems like it.

Yes I love it!

:D

My thought as well. Stoked!!!

I may cry with happiness :'D

Shedding tears as I write this

Uncontrollably sobbing here. Excitement

Set region to US if you are just live anywhere in this glorious world but in US

I hate that. Why Google CAN and Microsoft CANNOT??? Oh dear...

Its easier to implement something that works for the 20 people living in the US and use WP than for all the rest dude.....

Well, if you want to penetrate the world, that you should not offer crippled experience while users can easily find out, that it is crippled compared to US offer. E.g. why there is still problem with the Xbox Music Pass subscription in many EU countries after the years of availability in the US? Why we still do not have Bing search personalization for most EU countries? Why there is no Local Scout available in many EU countries? To name just few examples. I just do not get it.

Honestly, Local Scout sucks. Nokia Here Now is much better. You're not missing much.

But that's not the point, is it? :) And BTW, I don't see Nokia Here Now in my Store either... ;)

I guess you mean Here Explore (Beta)? It's not available in some/most countries either, which makes no sense since it's got 100% more coverage outside the US then Local Scout does.

Perhaps because the EU likes to sues Microsoft every fucking chance they get.

Nice try to excuse them, but what might be a legal problem with Surface availability in EU countries? It is just a tablet, isn't it?

And Internet Explorer is just a web browser...

You are just comparing incomparable. Browser was included in every OS copy sold, and that was the complaint. The EU decision was a piece a shit, but somehow could be explainable. But why the hack the Surface Tablet is not selling worldwide?

+11

True

That is one of the things that I hope MS will do sooner, rather than later, full global support for all of their services.

I can't agree more

It's not as if they have to fight a thousand laws and regulations (as with music and video services) to make it happen for Cortana. Sure, if there's no data for a given location she can politely apologize and tell you she can't find Starbucks in Dalmatian zagora. And you know what? Local Scout works perfectly in Croatia on 7.8 devices but it's completely disabled on 8.0 devices. When I fire up my old Omnia 7 I can find POI in Zagreb just fine. No restaurants and shops, but plenty of historical and other stuff. And Foursquare is very strong in my country, there are thousands of check-in points. I'm sure the same goes for many other countries. I don't like this US-centric approach. Microsoft is a global company. No disrespect meant for the United States whatsoever.

Exactly same here in Czech Republic with the WP7 / WP8 Local Scout.

Is there a Word Flow keyboard for Czech language? That's the most I'm hoping to get from 8.1 for Croatia and localization, but somehow I doubt even that will happen. MS has plenty of local branches in probably every country where there's more than one Windows machine, I hope those teams were/are hard at work.

Yes, there is Word Flow keyboard for Czech language.

MS is under heavier scrutiny than Google. Google has damn near/over 90% market share in most markets and yet no one is taking them to court like the EU took MS to court to break them up. Google is unapologetic about its lobbying

I cannot image that somebody would/could bring MS to court because of Bing Search country localization or Cortana service.

Does this mean Cortana is US only? :'(

Confirmed ...

When? How? A reputable source?
If its US only I will cry myself to sleep tonight :'(

You don't need a source, that is how MS usually rolls out such things. It would be a surprise if they release it globally.   I'm sad that Eastern Europe is like the end of the world for them.

Good find!  Awesome!  Can't wait to see what the hell this thing does.  Very excited today!

Are they insinuating that Cortana will be announced separately from 8.1?

Is it just me or you can't see the Personalization tab in Metro IE 11?

US only

I can see it in IE 11 desktop (I'm in Cambodia, and my Bing is set to US), but not in Metro

WOW! The moment we've been waiting for!

I just wonder if she will be available to all, no matter the region. I hope so. She can help with the calendar and other stuff, I don't mind not being able to ask her for good restaurants in Zagreb. Yet.

I agree with you

Agree with this. At least give us part of its functionality.

Hm. Can't see that in Germany.. :// Hopefully this doesn't mean anything!

don't worry, MSFT has never made any service US only.

Except all the cool Bing features.. :(

Does Bing Dictionary works in Germany (search: "define iguana" and see if it shows outstanding dictionary resutls like Google)? An Asian friend told me that it doesn't show them dictionary results.. If Dictionary is US only after 5 years of its release, then don't get your hopes high..

only dictionary ?  none of the features features except bing vision is available in india. :(

Just tested define for Australia and it works here as well as the calculator function etc.

One off the few things i hate about MSFT, all those services that are US only. They haave a bigger marketshare in Europe, but still don't seem to give a fuck about it. Cortana is probably US only. Why can't they make it worldwide, put it in W8 and X1 and make everyone profit off the effort that went into making this thing. We don't know yet if it will be a US only thing, but i think there is a 99% chance it is.

Satya has to change this if they want to succeed! :)

agreed. sadly I think even if he tells them, they can't. I don't understand how so many taltented people at MSFT can produce souch mediocre work in some areas. on the one hand, you have the tools gurus which blow away everybody, the backend server guys who do amazing things, on the other hand you have the services groups which can't ship anything on time, don't seem to care about international markets, and overall fail. Maybe it is bad management, maybe it is bad planning. not sure. Yes. Satya needs to clean house. If you can't ship, you're out.

2 more hours of wait!

I wish that she could sound just like the real Cortana.. Fingers crossed. I know we haven't heard it yet but lets hope!

Bing in Switzerland doesn't even show the personalization tab ...i fear I'll have to wait years until I can use Cortana without speaking a foreign language. I hope I'm wrong, though.

Still waiting for the news !! ,

Fck , I hope Cortana is'nt country specific ... That would really put off many many fans

So x sited!!

The region must be set to US to see the Personalization tab. I hope the need for this US setting is negated in WP8.1. Fingers crossed. :)

Yeah I hope so ,,

Just like Bing voice search which is available on all Windows Phones worldwide but the webpage voice search is US only.

Right now, I've just changed the search region setting in the phone to US for those text boxes on the Bing image and the voice search. Sucks that its not a worldwide feature.

3 hours left!!!!!

Keep them coming...awwwwww..sorry I got carried away.

Cortana better live up to whatever levels beyond siri and google now are now because otherwise, if we're being honest here, the offerings from apple and google are the source constant mocking by the WP crowd. And yet it seems we wanted those silly assistants all along even as virtially everybody dismissed them as gimmicks? I reserve judgement but given MSFT history, I'm ready for a dissapointment. It will be like using bing maps. yeah, ok, but no google.

I'm hoping it's better or different then the mentioned two.  A true personal assistant if you will.  Basically I want Scarlet Johanson dammit!  

Ditto, I am well and truly taking "Cortana" with a grain of salt. That being said I will be happy if I can play a song from my phone just by asking it. All I really care about because music navigation sucks.

Actually there is more that I want, but I know for a fact that we won't get it. I want a virtual assistant that truly adapts and eventually gets to a point where it will recommend to me something to eat/do/see/etc. Rather than me constantly having to ask it.

Part of the problem is data. MSFT just doesn't care. Look at bing maps. half the shops in a town are missing, so how will cortana possibly be able to recommend it? Look at events, bing events wasn't even able to find our city's st patrick's parade. WTF! Yet another example of the disfunctional MSFT: brilliant engineers probably made cortana smarter than siri or now, but it is backed by bing services which although are designed brilliantly, they are backed by bing data. hence the problem. Do we see flets of bing cars? nope. do we see a crowd source effort on bing maps? nope. do we see MSFT caring? nope. why MSFT doesn't care about its data repository is beyond me. billions of dollars sitting there could put two bing cars for every one google car if they wanted to.

I don't think Google Now is a gimmick. It does some smart things.. And I'd kill for Cortana to link up with Wolfram Alpha like Siri does.

IT'S HAPPENIIIING!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

It's quite interesting how a virtual assistant with reference to a video game can engage so many feelings around the world.:)
Either it appeals to the child in all of us or the gaming community is more mature than you might think it is. Either way it's kind of a cool move by Microsoft. I like it!

Cortana it is then, but I suspect limited markets only (eg. US and probably no one else!). Past midnight here in Aus atm, look forward to waking to some interesting news in the morning!

THEY USED HER NAME!!!!!

MS just can't mess up with this ... It's the feature most expected by all users around the world. I really hope isn't only for US (They even haven't a good market). :(

I agree. If it's US only, then I'm sure it's going to disappoint most of the WP users.I'll definitely be one of them. I've already switched back to Google from Bing due to Bing Rewards being US only & I can do the same for WP.

Will Cortana know my InPrivate viewing preferences?

You're sounding like a guilty spark

I smell WP 8.1. It is close almost here.

If cortana is US only, then the rest of the world wont need the search button on their phone. (assuming cortana is opened by tapping search button, from the leaks) It doesn't make sense at all

You have to hold down the search button for Cortana. Tapping it still takes you to Bing.

Thanks for this info. Cortana opened in a jiffy on all leak video, and i thought it was just a tap away. Anyway its still useless, bing in India isn't that much good for local searches

Sadly I honestly think that Cortana will be US only. Look at when WP7 was configured. If you changed the search it would show local scout and give you results. Then in WP8 even if you changed that, it still showed the local scout icon but didn't provide any results. Let's wait and see.

Will Cortana be revealed today??

Hell YESS

My bing is fast after this

Does this mean Cortana is coming to Win8.1 as well?

Awesome!

Microsoft, this better be not US only, or I'll unleash hell upon you!

I'm with you on this..

I wonder if Cortana will be available based on your phone's/Bing region or Microsoft Account settings. Because we can easily switch everything to US and get her on our phones but I will not mess with my Microsoft Account and billing settings. Once was enough, I had to ditch my old MS account because of it.

The name cortana is ridiculous for a virtual personal assistant. Microsoft still has an issue with naming.keep the name simple elegant and Catchy. Not everyone is a nerd and fan of whatever Sci fi stuff this name was gotten from. I'll choose the name Siri over Cortana anytime

I'm pretty sure you can change the name.  

Srsly???

Cortana killed Kenny.

Cartona

My favorite feature from WP7 music search is also back... really happy and looking forward for WP 8.1

Hey, I sent that as a Tip and I don't even get a thanks? :( Let alone me no one else either? Surely I wasn't the only one to send it..

is anyone managed to open this page: http://preview.windowsphone.com/en-US/legal/wp8/windows-phone-8-1-privac... the link can be found in the end of the personalization setting page of bing, but my browser keep telling me that I can't connect.

Its happening

Great news HOWEVER as always nothing has changed in UK Bing, using Microsoft for almost everything however the fact that Bing is so limited outside US is rather frustrating, almost as much as this comments area, please start using Disqus.

Yes!

I hope that Cortana Is available outside the US or else I might just go back to Google (who actually gives a shit about people outside the US)

US only it seems, just like Bing rewards... WHEN will MS actually get it, there's a world outside the US. And most of the people on this planet live here...
And there's also a bigger market out here....

Awesome!  I turned Search History back on so that Cortana can snuggle up and get to know me better.

Awesome! I turned Search History back on so that Cortana can snuggle up and get to know me better.