Windows 8 gains natural-language Smart Search, with hints that Cortana could follow

Microsoft said Wednesday that it has added natural-language search to its internal Windows 8 Smart Search. Users can write out queries as sentences or thoughts, rather than try to puzzle out the correct search term. Users must be "updated to the latest release of Windows 8," the Bing Relevance Team said in a blog post. Users apparently don't need to download an update; the improvements will just appear. "One of the most exciting things about this feature is that it demonstrates how the Bing platform makes our Windows product more useful and helpful without having to update the Windows client software," the Bing team wrote.