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Cortana is really bad

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Re: Cortana is really bad

#11

Post by notatoad »

sebringj wrote: post #2

This reminds me of those new gadget commercials that show existing issues being super difficult when they really are not. You were probably in a terrible mood when you wrote this which makes it much worse than it is. It could try to parse the tracking id for sure and you probably have never dealt with tracking packages before through an API but they give you not that much info most of the time, just like "arrived at…

>but the package id won't get you the name of the package in a human readable format so nickname is necessary.

Google can figure it out. I order something, i get cards in Google Now telling me exactly what i ordered and its shipping status, without any interaction on my part. It just happens.

If microsoft can't figure out how to do this, fine. But if they're going to pop up notifications saying "hey, i can track packages for you", they should be at least sort of on par with the competition.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#12

Post by eterm »

The whole experience of the start search / cortana / mix is horrible.

It can't even fuzzy search. Type "view event" and it brings up "view event logs", if you type "view events" it instead searches bing, in edge, for "view events".

Edge isn't even my default browser. Bing isn't my default search engine, and I didn't want to browse the web.

Any slight deviation from an exact phrase and it goes straight from "here's the program you want to run" to popping up it's search engine.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#13

Post by Theodores »

The Google approach is much better. Tracking numbers go out in email to the customer and you can put little xml snippets in there so that gmail can put 'track order' in the subject with a little button to click. This goes to the URL provided in the email, not to some magical service that magically determines if that tracking number came from UPS, USPS, Royal Mail, China Post, or whatever. Due to how couriers merge and get acquired you don't even have consistent tracking numbers for a given courier. So it is much better for the customer to not be guessing this stuff with Cortana.

Not everyone uses gmail. But, in the UK, for ecommerce, you can fully expect more than 50% of the order emails to be gmail addresses. Therefore the xml snippets approach is worth doing.

https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/

Re: Cortana is really bad

#14

Post by eightysixfour »

partiallypro wrote: post #9
edgarvaldes wrote: post #6

So, anyone know how does it work? I mean, the "tracking a package in Cortana". I'm intrigued now.

It usually just reads your email and shows you the packages based on that. I've never had any problems with it.

Yeah - it is pretty good at finding packages in my email that follow conventional tracking numbers. I have personally experienced the problems mentioned in the link when trying to add them manually though.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#16

Post by nerflad »

johndavidback wrote: post #7
nerflad wrote: post #3

> The Product Manager in charge of this feature should be immediately fired. I hate this kind of writing. It undermines the otherwise good point the author has.

Fair point. I use a little hyperbole to emphasize the fact that a product with an incredible global reach should default to well-planned and executed features, particularly if they are sprung upon you with desktop alerts. Hate it or not, someone did a very, very bad job here. Most likely many someones.

I agree with you that it should be implemented better, though I've honestly come to expect this from Windows.

It's just a bit extreme considering you submitted it to HN, where the people directly involved actually have a chance of seeing it.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#17

Post by mikestew »

nerflad wrote: post #3

> The Product Manager in charge of this feature should be immediately fired. I hate this kind of writing. It undermines the otherwise good point the author has.

I think there are times when a firing is appropriate, as sometimes folks end up in a position for which they are obviously not well-suited. Let’s take as an example the PM that broke party chat on the Xbone when it was released. IMO, assuming the design matched the implementation, it is reasonable to question whether the PM had ever used the previous Xbox 360 or had ever played games on a console at all. I’m not saying Microsoft should boot them out of the company, but they sure as hell shouldn’t be writing specs for games consoles anymore. So “fire” them from the Xbox team, let ‘em go back from whence they sprang, be it another division within MS or some other company.

Now whether it is warranted in case, I cannot judge as I don’t use the product.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#18

Post by castis »

knieveltech wrote: post #8
nerflad wrote: post #3

> The Product Manager in charge of this feature should be immediately fired. I hate this kind of writing. It undermines the otherwise good point the author has.

It certainly does nothing of the sort. There should absolutely be some kind of consequence associated with this kind of flaming dumpster fire making it's way into a production environment.

Well then the entire world should rejoice that people like yourself and OP are not in control of other peoples livelihood.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#20

Post by sebringj »

notatoad wrote: post #11
sebringj wrote: post #2

This reminds me of those new gadget commercials that show existing issues being super difficult when they really are not. You were probably in a terrible mood when you wrote this which makes it much worse than it is. It could try to parse the tracking id for sure and you probably have never dealt with tracking packages before through an API but they give you not that much info most of the time, just like "arrived at…

>but the package id won't get you the name of the package in a human readable format so nickname is necessary. Google can figure it out. I order something, i get cards in Google Now telling me exactly what i ordered and its shipping status, without any interaction on my part. It just happens. If microsoft can't figure out how to do this, fine. But if they're going to pop up notifications saying "hey, i can track pack…

Right, isn't that because they are integrated? If you are buying from the google store that has all the info, makes sense. Were you buying from a microsoft store as well? Just wondering because I agree if that is the case, otherwise, there is no integration there. But cool that google has it. I was under the impression is was just some random feature to track a package, my bad if so.
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