New acronym answers feature in Microsoft Search will help you navigate your company’s alphabet soup

Microsoft Search, the enterprise search platform designed to bring personalized searches across Office 365, Windows, and Bing is about to get a bit more useful. Indeed, Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Search now has an acronym answer feature (via MSPU).

According to Microsoft, with this new feature, users will be able to navigate their company’s confusing lingo. This is especially important, as Microsoft claims that 2-3% of search queries entered by employees are related to acronyms.

The new feature lets Office 365 Admins create custom definitions for any acronyms used within a business. Once acronyms are created by an administrator, Microsoft Search will be able to pick out the acronyms on company internal websites, documents, and Teams, Yammer, and other areas of Office 365. Users will also only see Acronyms mined from data that they already have access to.

Results and definitions will appear in a list in Bing as it does in the image above, with an ability to see more results if needed. The original location of the acronym will also be listed, for added convenience. And, if there are no internal definitions available, Microsoft Search will show results from Bing instead.

With the news that Microsoft will be making Bing as the default search engine for Chrome users with Office 365 ProPlus, it’s becoming more important to understand the purpose of Microsoft Search. The search platform was first announced at Ignite 2018 and hit general availability after Build 2019. We’re planning a new Office 365 series with tips, tricks, and explanations around Microsoft Search, so be sure to keep tuned for more in the days ahead.