Cortana is pretty cool but, out of the box, she uses Edge and Bing for her web searches. While Bing has come a long way, many people (myself included) prefer Google over Bing for web surfing.
Unfortunately, there is no easy built-in option in Windows 10 to allow you to change what search engine Cortana uses. However, by making a few configuration changes and installing a plug-in, you can “trick” Cortana into using Chrome and Google instead of Edge and Bing.
Make Cortana Use Google: How To Do It
Here are the steps you need to take to make Cortana use Google instead of Bing for web searches:
- Make sure you have Google Chrome installed on your Surface.
- Search for Default app settings.
- Select the entry for Web Browser then choose Google Chrome.
- Close the Settings window then open Chrome and install the Bing2Google extension by opening THIS LINK (from Chrome) then tapping or clicking Add to Chrome.
- You will be informed the extension can read and change your data on www.bing.com, select Add Extension.
As a side-effect of this change, if you use Chrome to go to Bing and search for something, it will automatically switch the search over to a Google search. However, if you use another browser (such as Edge) Bing will work normally. In addition, if you do a search by typing a question in the search bar, it will work normally except that all web searches will use Google instead of Bing.
Aside from using Google for web searches, Cortana will continue to function normally. She’ll still tell you jokes, sing you songs, keep your schedule, and keep you up to speed on the news.
So, if you prefer Google over Bing but you like Cortana, this little hack should give you the best of both worlds.
Tim
