Cortana Natural Language Queries - Feedback (Will go to Dev Team)

[osoalex]

Region/Language: English, USA.
Exact Phrase Spoken: "How tall is he?" (after asking "Who is Barack Obama?")
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes.
Expected Results: To Cortana know who am I talking about and give me the answer of my question.
Actual Results: Bing search for "How tall is he?"
Feedback:
There are many more contextual searches that would be awesome to be integrated.
Also, it'd be great if Cortana gets able to READ the content of the answer.

 

[Reebs Reebs]

Region/Language: English, USA.
Exact Phrase Spoken: "How tall is he?" (after asking "Who is Barack Obama?")
Did Cortana parse this correctly: No.
Expected Results: To Cortana know who am I talking about and give me the answer of my question.
Actual Results: Bing search for "How tall is he?"
Feedback:
There are many more contextual searches that would be awesome to be integrated.
Also, it'd be great if Cortana gets able to READ the content of the answer.

Same scenario happened to me as well. Should certainly be worked it. He/she/it should be linked to previous search.

 

[slickxsparkie]

Region/Language: United States/English
Exact phrase spoken: Find directions to my girlfriends house
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected results: For Cortana to give me directions to my girlfriends house as she would with any other said location by opening the default GPS app "WAZE"
Actual results: Bing search of "my girlfriends house"
Feedback: I taught Cortana who my girlfriend was earlier by saying "call my girlfriend" and she prompted me to choose that person in contacts. Her address is listed in the contacts, so I thought Cortana would be able to navigate me there

 

[iyae]

Region/Language: US/english
Exact Phrase Spoken: "change my alarm from 7.30 to 6.30"
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: My alarm to be changed from 7.30 to 6.30, retaining any recurring settings
Actual Results: A new alarm for 6.30, set only once
Feedback: Should work as expected

 

[iyae]

Region/Language: English/US
Exact Phrase Spoken: "cancel my 10am appointment on may 2nd.
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: To cancel said appointment
Actual Results: Cortana shows me the appointment, but I have to cancel manually
Feedback:
(please include screenshots if you can)

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: Remind me to print out my report at two oclock
Did Cortana par this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Remind me at two o'clock, either via vibration or on screen display
Actual Results: Reminded me when quiet hours were over at 3 pm
Feedback: Cortana should remind you of things, even when in quiet hours, just keep the reminder volume off - a vibration will do, or else just an onscreen alert.

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: From now on show me temperatures in Celsius
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Cortana would show weather results in celcius rather than Fahrenheit.
Actual Results: Cortana performed a bing search
Feedback: I prefer degrees Celsius, over Fahrenheit. There is currently no way to change this.

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: Remind me when I get to work tomorrow to talk to Nathan.
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Cortana would set a location based reminder, but only allow it to sound tomorrow
Actual Results: I made the reminder at work, and cortana instantly reminded me.
Feedback: Time and geo reminders would be awesome, and convenient.

Will post more as I discover more things.

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Two more things I just remembered:

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: Cancel my reminder at 4 o'clock
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Cortana would cancel the reminder
Actual Results: Searched Bing
Feedback: n/a

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: Delete the 7 AM alarm clock
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Cortana would delete the alarm clock.
Actual Results: Searched Bing
Feedback: Cortana should be able to delete alarm clocks as well as activate and deactivate them.

 

[falconrap]

Region/Language: USA/English
Exact Phrase Spoken: Am I a winner?
Did Cortana parse this correctly: No.
Expected Results: Some witty response
Actual Results: It would parse it as MIA winner or am IA winner even when I put a full second delay between each word
Feedback: Was trying to show my son a witty reply and constantly got this. Cortana needs to be able to better parse the phrase "Am I a..." correctly.

 

[AR2186]

Cortana has a problem parsing non-English names.
Region/Language: USA English
Phrase Spoken: "remind me to call Aziza when I get home"
Cortana Response: Various, but always messes up and wont associate with her name, even when it correctly registers it (Cortana will show "Aziza" as I speak, then change the txt to something else, like "it is a" or "is is a")
Feedback: I know her name is foreign, but Cortana correctly identifies her if I ask to call or text her, and it even registers her name at first in the reminder before changing it to other more common English words. Hopefully Cortana will learn that I contact her a lot, and she is already in my inner circle

 

[Talderon]

[INFO]Information has been compiled and will be sent to the Dev team![/INFO]

THANK YOU ALL! PLEASE KEEP THESE COMING!!!

 

[Roman Royter]

After using Cortana for a couple of days now, I must say I'm impressed. However, as always, she can do better and here are some examples:

Region/Language: USA / English
Exact Phrase Spoken: when is the neighbors coming out?
Did Cortana parse this correctly: yes
Expected Results: read out loud the date
Actual Results: She said The Neighbors come out on May 9th, 2014
Feedback: So far so good. Then a follow up command:
Exact Phrase Spoken: put it on my calendar
Did Cortana parse this correctly: yes
Expected Results: I added The Neighbors come out on May 9th on your calendar
Actual Results: Sure, what event is it?
Feedback: She didn't understand that I'm referring to the previous query. In essence, what she needs to learn is whenever she's asked "when something happens" she needs to be able to put a reminder about it in the calendar.

Region/Language: USA / English
Exact Phrase Spoken: what are the show times for Captain America on Saturday
Did Cortana parse this correctly: yes
Expected Results: read out loud the times or ask which theater I would like to go to
Actual Results: Shows bing search
Feedback: She needs to be able to do a better job than displaying a search, and even be able to set reminders when requested.

Also, handling different languages, but this goes to speech recognition in general. According to some estimates, 20% of Americans speak 2 and more languages. This means that a lot of people text in language other than English and even use alphabet that isn't Latin. For Cortana to be truly useful, she needs to learn to pronounce and recognize contact names in non-English while still being in English mode. I understand that I can switch to Russian for example, but I don't want to. I use English mainly for a long time now, but I still call my family by their Russian names/nicknames, and I want Cortana to understand me.

 

[anseld1986]

Region/Language: USA English
Exact Phrase Spoken: How did Microsoft stock do today?
Did Cortana parse this correctly: yes
Expected Results: Microsoft is currently up thirty cents today at forty dollars and five cents. This is a point-seven-four percent increase.
Actual Results: "Microsoft is trading up point-seven-four percent today at forty-point-zero-five." and shows the stock ticker from Bing Finance
Feedback: If you ask after trading has closed, sometimes Cortana will say things like "Microsoft did well today, etc etc etc" - nicely done!


Region/Language: USA English
Exact Phrase Spoken: When does Microsoft pay their next dividend?
Did Cortana parse this correctly: no ("when does Microsoft pay the next dividend") (the second time I asked, it did parse it correctly)
Expected Results: Microsoft will pay a dividend of 28 cents per share on June 12, 2014 to shareholders of record May 13, 2014.
Actual Results: Bing Search, linking to websites related to Microsoft Dividends
Feedback: When you search for stock information, Cortana tells you how the stock did, amount changed, etc - additional stock information like dividends would be useful.

 

[Kaushik Dash]

A lot of my queries may be regarded as suggestions

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Whats 2 times 8
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Expected it to say that "2 times 8 is 16"
Actual Results: Gave me search result "2*8=16"
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Track flight xxx
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Expected to show and tell the status and timings fo the flight
Actual Results: Simply gave me the flight status and timings of the flight
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Send an email to my father
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Open an editable email to my father
Actual Results: Bing search results
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Always show distance and directions informations in kilometres
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: To acknowledge that it will give responses in kilometres henceforth
Actual Results: Gave bing search results
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Always give temperature and weather forcasts in celsius.
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: To acknowledge that it will give responses in celcius henceforth
Actual Results: Gave bing search results
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Block any calls and texts from xxx (assume xxx to be someone)
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Block calls and texts from xx
Actual Results: Bing Search result
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact PhraseS Spoken: Tell me the reminders for tomorrow, are there any reminders for tomorrow, do I have any reminders tomorrow
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Show reminders for the day after
Actual Results: Bing search results
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Translate how are you hindi
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Translate and speak (atleast translate until the particular language is available for Cortana) to that language
Actual Results: Bing search results without the translation.
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Send this email to xxx tomorrow at 12 PM, Send a text saying abc to xxx tomorrow at 12 PM
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: To acknowledge that it will send an email or text to the person mentioned at the mentioned time with what was said to send
Actual Results: Bing search result
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Remove any alarms at 5 PM
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: To remove the alarm I had set at 5 PM
Actual Results: Bing search result
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Remind me to return xxx his stuff when I leave my home
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: To announce to return the stuff to xxx (read announce, not just show the reminder) as soon as when I leave my home (or atleast when I am a few metres away from my house).
Actual Results: Showed me the remi when I was nearly a kilometre away from my house, didn't announce what was the reminder, just showed it.
Screenshot:

Region/Language: English, USA. I live in India though
Exact Phrase Spoken: Call my sister (when I had named my elder sister 'elder sister' and younger sister 'Younger sister')
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: To give me the option to choose which sister
Actual Results: "Alright, name your sister."
Addition information - It should be able to recognise who is sister if sister is mentioned in the nick name, i.e. "Elder Sister", "Younger Sister" and when I command to call ym sister, it would ask "Which sister? Your elder sister "sister's name in contact list" or your youger sister "younger sister's name in contact list"? Same with "youngest uncle", "maternal grandfather", etc.
Screenshot:


Good initiative! I hope you take some suggestions too! ^^ Thanks for your help! Cortana is awesome!
Despite being Indian, it understands my (slighty manipulated) accent almost perfectly!
I am extensively testing Cortana, so I will post more soon.

 

[anseld1986]

Region/Language: USA English
Exact Phrase Spoken: "Let's go to the beach house"
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Bring up Here Drive+ with directions to the location saved as "The Beach House" in my notebook.
Actual Results: "Okay, getting you directions to [proper address]." Shows page saying "Start Driving Directions." Opens Here Drive+ with the beach house properly set as the destination.
Feedback: Yesterday this wasn't working - today, it consistently worked perfectly. Awesome!!

Region/Language: USA English
Exact Phrase Spoken: "Take me to the beach house."
Did Cortana parse this correctly: yes
Expected Results: Bring up Here Drive+ with directions to the location saved as "The Beach House" in my notebook.
Actual Results: Bing web search for "take me to the beach house"
Feedback: Seems like a nuance of phrasing versus the above (working) query.

 

[OHardy]

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: Remind me tomorrow to do staff expense reports.
Did Cortana part this correctly: No
Expected Results: Add reminder about Staff expense report
Actual Results: Stuff expense report
Feedback: I noticed it has an issue recognizing words with an 'F'.

 

[JamesDax]

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: how about some jazz
Did Cortana part this correctly: yes
Expected Results: starts playing jazz genre from Xbox Music
Actual Results: Did a web search
Feedback: To be fair when I said "play me some jazz it worked, but would be nice if she recognized different ways of asking the same question.

 

[David Min]

Region/Language: USA English
Exact Phrase Spoken: I am contemplating suicide
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Cortana to give me suicide helpline
Actual Results: Bing search of the phrase
Feedback: This is important stuff

 

[theysaycj]

Region/Language: English (USA)
Exact Phrase Spoken: What should I do?
Did Cortana parse this correctly: yes
Expected Results: Say an option of what I do
Actual Results: Bing search
Feedback: Cortana knows my interests, it would be really cool if when I ask that question she would reply with one of my interests. ex: watch a movie, hang out with your girlfriend. Also, if she knows who my girlfriend is she could say hang out with "girlfriend's name". Thanks!

 

[realwarder]

Region/Language: English (USA)
Exact Phrase Spoken: Will there be a thunderstorm today?
Did Cortana parse this correctly: yes
Expected Results: Say yes
Actual Results: Weather opens and says "No, it doesn't look like it" despite the whole day showing lightening symbols.
Feedback: Identify thundery days

 

[realwarder]

Region/Language: English (USA)
Exact Phrase Spoken: Show me CNN.COM/Browse to CNN.COM
Did Cortana parse this correctly: yes
Expected Results: Open IE with cnn.com
Actual Results: Bing search
Feedback: Would be good to open a browser to a website when asked