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Guidance for retiring Microsoft Search in Bing for your organization

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After March 31, 2025, work search through Bing.com is being retired. This change is being made as Microsoft streamlines search experiences to focus on enhancing core productivity tools.

While Microsoft Search is being removed from Bing, the core Microsoft Search experience remains accessible through Microsoft365.com, Office.com, and SharePoint Online. Users can also still find people in their organization, files, and SharePoint sites using the Edge for Business address bar and Windows search box, each of which routes them to a Microsoft Search experience.

What's changing?

Users will find work search results on Microsoft365.com rather than on Bing.com. Likewise, the Microsoft Edge for Business address bar will send users to work results on Microsoft365.com rather than Bing.com. Bing's dedicated page for work results (the "Work" tab) is being retired, so Microsoft365.com, Office.com, and SharePoint Online are the new homes for Microsoft Search. Search boxes that IT admins configured to point to Microsoft Search in Bing will no longer provide work results. People who go directly to or have bookmarks for www.bing.com/work will be redirected to Microsoft365.com through June 30, 2025.

When and where are these changes taking place?

Microsoft Search in Bing is being retired in all regions worldwide on March 31, 2025. It's being retired on all devices, including mobile.

Where can users search for work answers?

Microsoft365.com, Office.com, and SharePoint Online are the new homes for Microsoft Search. The Edge for Business address bar and Windows search box also continue to deliver work search results with some adjustments, detailed here:

Edge address bar

The Microsoft Edge for Business address bar will send users to work results on Microsoft365.com rather than Bing.com. Users of the address bar can continue to find work-related documents, bookmarks, and people in suggested results—clicking on these suggestions takes users to work results on Microsoft365.com. Users can also type "work" in the address bar, hit the tab key, then type in their work-related query to get work results on a Microsoft365.com page.

The Windows search box is removing the "Work" tab, but continues to support work search. Windows searches deliver work results only for documents initially, with more content types returned as quickly as possible. UX changes are also coming to the Windows search box.

What actions are required for customers?

  • Prepare users for the removal of work search results on Bing.com by March 31, 2025.
  • Transition to the Edge for Business address bar, the Windows search box, Microsoft365.com, Office.com, or SharePoint Online as entry points to Microsoft Search. Customers can add these entry points to favorites or the favorites bar in Edge for Business as a helpful alternative pathway. Admins can easily set favorites in Edge for Business for their organization—see details here.
  • Inform your users as soon as possible about the upcoming changes and the alternatives available.
  • Inform your users how to use the Edge address bar to perform work searches. Get details here
  • Consider retiring Microsoft Search in Bing before March 31, 2025 for your organization. If you choose to do so, you can turn off Microsoft Search in Bing by going to Settings in the Microsoft 365 admin center > Settings > Search & Intelligence.

Why is this announcement important?

Searching for files, people, intranet sites, and more is an important part of daily productivity. We understand that the retirement of Microsoft Search in Bing may create some disruption in daily work. The key concept to communicate to users is that the existing pathways that they're familiar with will continue to work. Users can continue to use the Edge for Business address bar and Windows search box to access Microsoft Search.

Why is this happening?

Customer productivity is our mission and making work search a better experience remains a priority for Microsoft. We hope to better serve you through Microsoft Search in the core productivity experiences of Microsoft365.com, Office.com, and SharePoint Online. We’re also continuing to explore new ways to improve the experience and make work search more discoverable.

Is there any impact on users before March 31, 2025?

Users who click on suggestions in the Edge for Business address bar may be redirected to Microsoft365.com before March 31, 2025. Also, as we begin testing the retirement experience, a small set of users may find before March 31 that Bing is intermittently unavailable as an endpoint for work search. We recommend that you inform your users of the change and direct them to Microsoft365.com, Office.com, and SharePoint Online instead. Adding these entry points to their favorites or to the favorites bar in Edge for Business may be a helpful alternative pathway.

Can customers try to opt out of this change?

No, customers can't opt out of the change, but customers may opt to set their own date for the change. Admins who wish to retire Microsoft Search in Bing before March 31, 2025 can turn it off by going to Settings in the Microsoft 365 admin center: Settings > Search & Intelligence.

What's happening to bookmarks?

Editorial bookmarks (bookmarks that an IT admin has curated) will continue to work on the other Microsoft Search entry points. These include Microsoft365.com, Office.com, SharePoint Online, and the Edge for Business address bar.

Today, Microsoft Search also recommends bookmarks based on your organization's SharePoint links. After March 31, Microsoft Search will no longer recommend bookmarks.

Some organizations have set their recommended bookmarks to automatically publish. Automatically published bookmarks, which currently only appear in Microsoft Search in Bing, are no longer visible after March 31. If your organization automatically publishes recommended bookmarks, and you'd like those bookmarks to be visible on other Microsoft Search entry points, you must manually publish them before April 30, 2025 (to give you a little extra time after the March 31 retirement of Microsoft Search in Bing). You can also export your recommended bookmarks by April 30 if you want to keep them, but don't want to publish them.

Learn more about managing bookmarks.

Does this impact all tenants?

Yes, all tenants who have had access to Microsoft Search in Bing are affected.