Seems like another new bit of Power BI functionality got released today: the ability to optimize your data model for Q&A in the browser. Here’s the link to the docs:
Previously, the ability to add synonyms to your model to improve the results you got from Q&A was only available in Excel on the desktop, inside the Power Pivot window. Now you can do this, as well as new stuff like add phrasings (described here) and view usage reports, in your Power BI site.
I won’t repeat what the docs say about the actual functionality, but this seems to be yet more evidence that Excel on the desktop is no longer the central hub for Power BI. If this is the case, this is a massive strategic change, and I can understand why it has happened: the need for the ‘right’ version of Excel on the desktop is a massive roadblock for Power BI adoption, especially in enterprise accounts (see also Jen Underwood’s comments on this from yesterday). Maybe now it’s BI in the browser instead?
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