Cortana: Microsoft’s assistant would have been called almost completely different

Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana would have been called almost completely different, as it has now become known. If Steve Ballmer had prevailed, the shouting today would be “hey bingo”. There was also a third name in the room – even Amazon would have had to reorient itself.

Bingo: Cortana should have a completely different name

When Steve Ballmer led the fortunes of Microsoft as CEO, he had a whole lot special name for the planned digital assistant thought up. Although the AI ​​character was already called Cortana during development, Ballmer himself suggested the name bingo. The former product manager Sandeep Paruchuri has now revealed. The suggestion was then simply “eaten out”. Ballmer would have generally had a “bad taste for product names”. (Source: Big Bets)

If Steve Ballmer had prevailed with his unusual suggestion, then Microsoft’s digital assistant would be called today “Hey bingo” instead of hearing “hey Cortana”. But there was another suggestion that Microsoft even communicated publicly at the time: the character should be called Alyx, which was anything but well received by customers and fans. The name was then withdrawn without further ado.

If only Cortana had been marketed as Alyx, so would it Effects on Amazon had. As Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant would not have come onto the market. Alexa and Alyx just sound too similar.

What should be considered when dealing with voice assistants? The answer is in the video:

Cortana instead of bingo: Microsoft fans started petition

Although Cortana was initially just the internal name, the name was very well received by fans. When a leaker found the name in a beta version of a Microsoft product, they signed more than a million supporters a petition that Microsoft should keep the name.