If you ventured over to Bing today because you love their daily images and search results, you would have been in for a small variation to your usual routine. When you entered the item you were searching for and hit enter, typically the results load in the same tab/window. That all changed today when Bing introduced a new ‘feature’, if you want to call it that, which opens a new tab to display your search results.
When you search, the results open in a new tab and it is a simple change, but depending on your intentions, it could be quite annoying. For example, if you plan on searching multiple items, it could be a good thing as it keeps your results separate but at the same time, you could also end up with a million tabs opened when you spelled a few words wrong in a phrase and you had to keep searching to refine the results.
Twitter has been buzzing (no, not that buzz) with users complaining about the change with most showing detest over the new tabs being opened. Mary-Jo Foley was able to get a comment from Microsoft about the change. The company states:
We are currently testing a new homepage experience in the U.S. The Bing homepage is used by millions on a daily basis, and before we make any features permanent, they undergo intensive testing and experimentation to ensure the best possible search experience for our customers. We have nothing further to share at this time.
Hopefully the Bing team will get the message that most users do not appreciate the new tabs for new searches idea and revert back to the previous method for searching.
If you do not like the feature and feel like letting Microsoft know about it, you can send them a strongly worded survey here.
[Update] Microsoft has heard the complaints and will drop the feature, your voices were heard.
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