Facebook Drops Bing as Search Results Provider

Facebook has dropped Bing as their search partner on the social media platform, a move that went largely unnoticed.

Facebook recently changed how their search functionality works, to allow users to be able to search for specific posts, rather than just finding specific people, groups are pages. However, no one seemed to notice that Bing results were missing from their web results.

Venture Beat received comments from both Microsoft and Facebook on the search change.

In a statement to VentureBeat, a Facebook spokesperson said, “We’re not currently showing web search results in Facebook Search because we’re focused on helping people find what’s been shared with them on Facebook.” But, “We continue to have a great partnership with Microsoft in lots of different areas.”

A Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat that, “Facebook recently changed its search experience to focus on helping people tap into information that’s been shared with them on Facebook versus a broader set of web results. We continue to partner with Facebook in many different areas.”

The Microsoft spokesperson also noted that Facebook’s move happened “a while ago.”

The change is unfortunate for Bing, as they are still trying to grow their search market share. However the recent deal Yahoo made with Firefox does give Bing search results a little bit more exposure, even though they are branded under Yahoo.  But it is unclear how frequently users were using the web search results over using the old search functionality for simply finding Facebook content.

It does raise the question if Facebook is working on their search in preparation to go head to head with Google in search related areas, a space where Google dominates and Facebook is clearly concerned about Google’s dominance in all areas.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post

Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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