Cortana is also available in Microsoft Edge

One of the differentiating features that Microsoft Edge offers with respect to other browsers is the inclusion of the digital assistant Cortana, which integrates with the browser to give us quick answers to certain queries instantly, without even having to start a search or load a web page.

This function can be very useful if we take advantage of it, but unfortunately not all Windows 10 users know about it, so below we will explain how exactly to use Cortana in Microsoft Edge, and what are the possibilities it offers.

Using Cortana from the address bar

One of the ways to use Cortana in Edge is by typing queries in the address bar If we're lucky, and the assistant understands what prompted, it will return a response of the form instant (you don't even have to press Enter).

This answer will appear just below the bar, and clicking on it will redirect us to a Bing search.

It is not documented which are all the queries that Cortana supports in Edge, but here are some of the ones that have helped me (if you know others you can share them in the comments):

• Convert currencies: euro to dollar, EUR to USD, convert 430 euros to dollars.
• Queries about the weather: weather in santiago, temperature in new york, weather in madrid
• Ask for time and time zones: Current time, time in San Francisco
• Unit conversion: 340 pounds to kilograms, 30 degrees C to F, 230 calories to joules
• Word definitions: define goat
• Stock prices: How much are microsoft shares worth, MSFT stock

"In general, Microsoft Edge supports almost all Cortana commands that don&39;t involve making changes or accessing Cortana&39;s notebook, but are just queries of information openly available on the internet (for example, from Edge you can&39;t we can access reminders or add events to the calendar)."

And as a practical tip: by pressing ALT + D we can jump directly to the address bar, and thus make queries more quickly.

Using Cortana from the context menu

Cortana is also available from the context menu in Microsoft Edge. Every time we select a word or phrase, and then right-click on it, a button called Ask Cortana will appear.

Pressing this will display a panel on the right with useful informationwith respect to the selected concept. It might not sound like a big deal, but it's a very well implemented feature for two reasons:

1. The panel does not display a crude Bing search, but rather displays the definition of the concept directly (and if possible, images and related concepts).
2. The function recognizes the context of the selected word. Example, if in an article about the United States elections we select Clinton and ask Cortana, she will know that the article refers to Hillary, and not to the former president.It is even able to identify acronyms based on context:

However, if the panel results are not satisfactory, a link is provided to start a Bing search.

If, on the other hand, the information is useful and we want to have it at hand, we can click on the upper right corner to pin the Cortana panel , so that it is always visible, even if we click on the web page again.