Microsoft’s popular search engine, Bing, experienced significant downtime in Europe on Thursday, leading to disruptions across various services that rely on its application programming interface (API). Initially, users encountered difficulties in performing web searches, with search results failing to load. The outage persisted for several hours, impacting not only Bing but also other platforms intertwined with its API.
Services like DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Microsoft Copilot, and ChatGPT were among those affected by the outage. These alternative search engines, which heavily depend on Bing’s search results, were rendered inoperable during the downtime. Even ChatGPT Plus subscribers, who typically have the privilege of conducting web searches, were met with errors when attempting to utilize the feature.
The disruption highlighted the interconnected nature of the online ecosystem, emphasizing the crucial role that certain tech giants play in maintaining the functionality of numerous services. With Bing’s API at the core of many platforms, the outage underscored the widespread impact that a single technical issue can have across the digital landscape.
Fortunately, the incident came to a close around 7.20 a.m. PT, with services gradually being restored after more than five hours of disruption. While Google continues to dominate the web search market, the outage served as a reminder of Bing’s increasing significance in powering various services beyond Microsoft’s own ecosystem.
Despite the inconvenience caused by the outage, Microsoft has yet to provide a detailed explanation for the technical issues experienced. The incident serves as a cautionary tale, highlighting the vulnerability of digital services when reliant on a handful of key players in the tech industry.
For more information, please refer to the original article on TechCrunch at https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/23/bing-is-down-bringing-duckduckgo-and-ecosia-down-too/
