Ignite 2019: Microsoft Search, built in to new Edge, adds People search, more

Microsoft announced some important updates regarding Microsoft Search, the company’s intelligent enterprise search experience at Ignite 2019 this morning. If Microsoft Search was already great for finding information contained within an organization, the Redmond giant is continuing to make it more useful for searching content outside of Microsoft 365.

The new Microsoft Search updates that Microsoft announced today include the ability to search for people using natural language, by mentioning details such as title, team name, or office location. Microsoft Search will also be able to tell what company acronyms mean, and provide floor plans for directions when you search for an office location. Microsoft Search is already available across Bing, Office, Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Windows, but Microsoft is now bringing it to the Bing mobile apps on iOS and Android. This should certainly help employees save time when searching for information while on the go.

In addition to these new Microsoft Search capabilities that are now generally available, Microsoft also announced some new features coming in private preview. There’s a new Microsoft Graph connectors preview program, which will allow companies to bring more information to their employees using Microsoft Search. The software giant already announced 100 connectors from Salesforce.com, Box and more that will be available in the first half of 2020.

Moreover, Microsoft Search will become available within the search bar in Microsoft Edge, which uses Bing by default. Microsoft also announced today that the new Chromium-based Edge will be available in a stable version in January, and a release candidate is available to download today.