At the Windows 10 event, Microsoft officially announced that Project Spartan will now be the new web browser for Windows 10. It is also shipping the regular IE11 for backwards compatibility. Spartan is the company’s modern web browser to compete with Chrome and Firefox.
It comes with several new features, including a reading mode, extensions, annotation abilities, and Cortana integration. Cortana built into Microsoft’s contextual searching chops was one of the biggest highlights of the January event. For instance, if a user is searching for a restaurant, Cortana will throw in a map, menu and contact details of the place.
Cortana will also show additional information about the sites you’re browsing. It also can easily pull up things like flight reservations if you type the aircraft name in the address bar. Winbeta has now released a demo video showing Cortana’s features.
Most of the features demoed are what the company disclosed in January. Cortana pops its head in the address bar each time it detects a site it has further information about. The video shows how Coratana will provide information like directions and more within the browser. One can also opt for the ‘Ask Cortana’ option, just like Apple’s feature in OS X.
Cortana has been integrated into the address bar in such a way that it quickly pops up the weather forecast whenever you type ‘weather’. While surfing the web, you also get the option to highlight a word or few words and then right click for the ‘Ask Cortana’ option, and it will provide information without leaving the page. For instance, you can simply highlight a word and click ‘Ask Cortana’ and it will provide the definition and additional information in a section on the right side.
