• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 11, 2016

Microsoft has released Windows 10 user activity numbers that indicate the amount of users across Bing, Edge, Cortana, and other applications.

The ultimate goal is for the knowledge graph, which supports the core platforms, to best use the preferences from those using desktops and mobile devices running on Windows 10.

To date, Cortana has been asked to answer 2.4 billion questions, and 44.5 billion minutes have been spent surfing the Web with Microsoft Edge. Bing has experienced a 30% jump in queries on Windows 10, compared with previous Windows versions.

Microsoft head of Xbox business strategy and marketing Yusuf Mehdi recently outlined in a blog post aspects of Windows 10 adoption rates. Among the stats, 82 billion photos have been viewed on the photos app and more than four billion hours have been spent playing PC games.

The most interesting aspect of the stats points to the ability to link activity on the PC, which provides a more comprehensive outline of the user to serve "relevant" ads.

In the future, Windows 10 or a subsequent operating system will surely integrate with many or all of the estimated 200 billion devices on the market -- roughly 26 smart objects for every human on the planet -- that Intel estimates will become available by 2020.

With all the smart devices coming online, experts suggest that interoperability between these devices and platforms poses privacy concerns, although late last year Microsoft updated its privacy policy to clarify how and when the OS uses user data.

Meanwhile, Microsoft also has been experimenting in showing network speeds for Bing, allowing developers to test Internet speed connections without having to download an app. Microsoft appears to have embedded a technology into its Bing search engine that allows users to initiate the feature by simply searching for "speedtest" or "speed test," according to one report.

Spotted by a reader of the site Windows Central, Kabir Cheema tweeted on Twitter a few images displaying a speed test app within Bing for both the Web and mobile. It's one more piece of data for Microsoft. While it doesn't work well on all Web browsers, per reports, the feature also shows the IP address.