Last month, Microsoft made the news for all the wrong reasons as it announced that it would install a browser extension called Microsoft Search in Bing for Office 365 Pro Plus customers. Essentially, this would change the search engine on users’ devices to Bing as a way to make it easier to reach Microsoft Search through the web. Unsurprisingly, though, customers weren’t happy that Microsoft was forcing them onto a different search engine without any way to prevent it from happening, even if it could be changed back afterward.
Microsoft has now announced that it’s going back on its decision through a Tech Community post. The company says it’s heard from “customers who are excited about the value Microsoft Search provides through Bing”, but that it’s also heard concerns from users who don’t want Microsoft to change their search defaults without an opt-in.
Microsoft had its reasoning for the move, of course, but it doesn’t matter too much now Microsoft is officially backtracking on its decision. In a blog post published today, Microsoft announced that it will not be moving forward with plans to automatically bundle its Bing browser extension with installations of Office 365 Pro Plus, and will instead ensure it’s “opt-in” only. That arguably should have been the case in the first place, but it is nice to see the tech giant respond to user feedback.
Notably, this news also means the Bing extension won’t roll out with version 2002 of Office 365 Pro Plus. An “updated timeline” for its release will be provided sometime in the next few weeks, so that’s something to look forward to if you just really, really want to be able to auto-install Bing on your system.
