Microsoft Search in Bing: Uniting the Internet and the Intranet

I’m pleased to be back at Ignite this year as we showcase the latest workplace search features and unveil the new Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Bing as the browser and search engine for business.

In the age of digital transformation, the browser is no longer just a portal to the web. So much of our information is now in the cloud, including internal company information. And we are generating information at a rate that we now need new vocabulary of petabytes and zettabytes to even describe it.

Yet the tools to cope with this reality haven’t caught up. Finding internal company information is nowhere as simple and effective as it should be. The workplace needs a search engine that is designed for business needs. That’s why Bing is uniting the internet and intranet—so you can find work and web information together, whether you search in the browser’s address bar or a Bing-powered search box. All in one place, in a fast and convenient way.

Just search as you normally do, but now you can ask for “files from Matt” or “define this acronym.” Or look up someone by their first name and job role, like “Sofia engineer,” because that’s all you remember from a brief hallway conversation and now that person holds the key to your new project.

We call this powerful enterprise search Microsoft Search, as it is tapping into Microsoft 365 and the Microsoft Graph. You’ll find this search available in Microsoft 365 experiences such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It’s also available in Bing as one consolidated search capability and is called Microsoft Search in Bing. And you’ll find it natively built into the search bar of the new Microsoft Edge, giving you fast, simple, and effective workplace search from day one for Microsoft 365 customers.

Say goodbye to the days of “what’s that URL?,” “can you send me the link?,” and “where’s the file for…?” Download the Release Candidate of the new Microsoft Edge. Then sign in with your work account (your AAD login) and find the productivity you can’t live without.

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Here’s a closer look at what we announced at Ignite and will be in production later this month:

Deeper browser and search integration: We now have a deep integration with the new Microsoft Edge, as well as the Microsoft Edge and Bing mobile apps. That means you’ll get web and work suggestions personalized to you and your work with as little as one keystroke on any device. 

Acronyms: We know that the same acronym can mean different things at different companies—or even to different teams within the same company. Now you can get definitions for your company’s unique acronyms with admin-uploaded glossaries. And we’ve also added definitions that are mined using machine learning from emails and files in the Microsoft Graph, in case there are some acronyms your IT admin doesn’t know about yet. Again, we provide relevant work and web results together, so you can see the meaning of the acronym both inside and outside your company.

Enhanced people search: Don’t know someone’s last name? We partnered with the Office team to make people search work the way you do. Now you can find people by their first name and title, location, or job function. You can easily find phone numbers, calendar availability, or organization structure.

Floorplans: You’ll be able to find office floorplans along with building locations, so you’re never late for a meeting. You’ll also find key office resources, like copiers or conference rooms.

Mobile: Of course, we know that productivity on the go is important, so all of the innovations you see above are available on mobile too.

Coming soon

Semantic search: Today, if your organization wants to make common questions searchable, an editor needs to create and maintain an answer. With semantic search, we apply our most advanced deep learning algorithms in Bing including the latest machine reading comprehension to extract the answer directly from the relevant document in the Microsoft Graph.

Power BI integration: Making a Power BI dashboard is an investment for any company, but it’s only valuable if people can find it. Soon, Microsoft Search in Bing will return the most relevant Power BI dashboard. Your data will only be a search away.

Connectors: We understand that being able to search for your data—wherever it happens to live—is essential for your continued success. This has been a top customer request from the beginning. Together with our partners Accenture, BA Insights, and Raytion, we are excited to announce the start of our Microsoft Graph connectors preview program today, with 100+ third-party data sources strong. Now you can search for workplace content, across data sources like Box, Salesforce, and ServiceNow, and see results on Bing along with the rest of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Beyond these new search experiences, we are also pleased to share that enterprise searches are secured and protected under the Microsoft trust measures.

Lastly, we are starting this journey with a focus on business professionals and IT managers, but of course you can use Bing in your personal life and get highly relevant web search results. You can also take advantage of the new InPrivate mode in Microsoft Edge with Bing if you’d like your searches to be fully private. Next spring, you will hear more as we continue to build on Microsoft Edge and Bing and release new consumer features.

Excited for Ignite

Two years ago, my colleague Li-Chen Miller, GM AI+Research, was on stage with our CEO Satya Nadella at Ignite announcing our Bing vision for workplace search. We’ve since partnered closely with Microsoft 365 and many enterprise customers to deliver the next generation of workplace search. Over 200,000 Microsoft 365 tenants already use Microsoft Search in Bing today and are providing ongoing feedback to help us further improve the tech and experience, so we couldn’t be more excited about the future.

We hope you’ll be as excited about Microsoft Search in Bing as we are once you experience it yourself! Visit us in the Microsoft Search and Intelligence booth, #24, in the Modern Workplace and Modern Life neighborhood. If you can’t attend in person, watch the session “Unlocking workplace productivity with Microsoft Search in Bing” live on Nov 6 at 12:45 PM Pacific Time.