Microsoft recently published a support document outlining its plans to force Office 365 ProPlus users to change their default search engine to Bing. It will begin with version 2002 for new installations and for updated versions of Office 365, although updated versions will see a more gradual rollout.
It's going to install an extension called Microsoft Search in Bing, and it's meant to provide access to Microsoft Search in Google's Chrome browser. What Microsoft Search allows you to do is have one spot where you can search the web and within your organization, also using the Microsoft Graph for insights. It's a unified search product, and the way to access it from the web is through Bing.
Needless to say though, people aren't happy. Office 365 ProPlus is a business product, and IT administrators have things set the way that they like them. One user on GitHub said, "This unexpected Chrome Browser Hijack will confuse and disappoint my end users and create extra helpdesk calls for my org. Please don't do this."
RescueWhale said the following: "This feature SHOULD NOT be on by default and is totally unacceptable in a business environment. It would be bad enough if bing [sic] was a good search engine but it's just not, no matter how many users you force onto the platform."
There were several other complaints on Reddit and GitHub, as spotted by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley.
There are a couple of ways around this. For one thing, once the new extension changes the default search engine, users can change it back; however, it's unclear if updates to the extension will change it to Bing again. System administrators can also block it from being installed using the Office Deployment Tool or Group Policy.
Microsoft Search in Bing will begin rolling out with Office 365 ProPlus with the February update in the United States, United Kingdom, India, Germany, France, Canada, and Australia.
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