Facebook Drops Bing From Facebook Search Results

The end to a long relationship with Microsoft search is another signal that Facebook is concentrating on serving connections within its network.

Facebook has broken up with Bing, quietly dropping results from the Microsoft search engine as part of this week’s Facebook search update.

The change, reported late today by Reuters, was confirmed by a Facebook spokesperson in an email to Search Engine Land.

“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,” the spokesperson wrote. “We continue to have a great partnership with Microsoft in lots of different areas.”

Facebook search has long been geared toward helping users find other people or information within the social network. But since 2008, Facebook has also served search results from the wider web, first in 2008 with Microsoft’s Live Search, then in 2010 with Bing.

Now Facebook is shifting gears. On Monday it announced an update — for U.S. English language users — that restored the ability for people to search within posts. That, Facebook said, was the No. 1 search-related request from users.