The Bing search bar is getting a bit of a functionality boost for Windows enterprise users.
As of yesterday, February 20, 2019, The Bing.com autosuggest feature found in the search bar can now surface saved browser bookmarks and contact suggestions.
Similar to the functionality of the Windows 10 Search, the Bing.com search bar is becoming a more robust and multifaceted tool that’s shortening the gaps between functionality and productivity.
As much as consumers could benefit from this added ability in the regular version of Bing.com, the new functionality is even proving difficult to come by for enterprise users.
According to Microsoft, there are several hoops users will need to jump through to enable the update, presumably for security reasons.
Requirements:
To see bookmark and people suggestions in Edge, users need to meet these requirements:
- Be a member of a MSB public preview tenant
- Signed in to a Windows machine with their AAD credentials
- Edge version 1709 Fall 2017 Creator’s update or newer installed
- Bing is set as the default search provider in Edge
In the name of transparency, the Bing team offered a rationale for its inclusion of bookmarks and contacts surfacing in the search bar. Rather predictably, the Bing team plans to use the new functionality to help its algorithm determine prioritization of the additional information based on queries.
As a team, we are always striving to help users find what they are looking for in the most efficient way possible. As users click on these suggestions, we can better rank which bookmarks and people show up for which queries within a tenant. This also helps users to “stumble on” MSB organically by surfacing relevant suggestions where they’re searching and enticing them to learn more about it. We’ll continue to add these autosuggestions across various endpoints to meet users where they are.
The Bing team also plans to incorporate support of other data points that include Q&A, locations and more. As Microsoft hones in on a newer browser experience as well as creating a lightweight Chrome OS-like competitor, I can see a not too distant future where a robust search bar in a new browser becomes as vital as the File Explorer in Windows.
