Hardware is advancing, allowing people to store more data.
But with the more data, things can be rather difficult, like the process to search them. With mountains of information located on different places, looking for something can be as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack. And this is what Microsoft is trying to solve.
The company said that it's releasing a string of updates to boost productivity, one of which includes a change that affects how people will find the things they're looking for.
To do this, Microsoft is unifying search across Windows 10, Office, Edge, Teams, Bing and everywhere else it shows up in productivity apps, into one common 'Microsoft Search'.
The result is one search box capable of working in a "consistent, prominent place" across the apps, the company said.
The goal is to provide a unified view of search results that encompasses not just the users' own documents and emails, but also their organization's content and conversations.
To make everything work as intended, Microsoft is enhancing the search feature, with access to commands as well as personalized results. It also includes automatic suggestions and more.
For example, its AI can combine data from users' computer with knowledge gathered from the internet to answer specific questions like: "Can I bring my wife and kids on a work trip?"
Microsoft is also leveraging AI for features in Microsoft 365.
For example, the AI can suggest things based on what users are doing, like recommending on designs and layouts, as well as charts, when users are working with Excel and PowerPoint. And also, Excel has an image recognition tool powered by AI that can transform printed or hand-drawn tables into spreadsheets. This should save users a lot of time when saving data entries.
Additionally, Microsoft also updates its OneDrive on Mac, allowing users to use Mac's Finder feature to access their files located in the cloud, and download those files only when they need them.
There is also an update to Cortana Skills Kit for Enterprise. This allows businesses to create custom voice apps for both their employees and customers.
The move is an ambitious one from Microsoft, as the company wants to overhaul search experience across its properties.
Microsoft Search starts appearing on Bing and Office websites, as well as in the SharePoint mobile app.
With the presence of Microsoft Search, it's not going to change anything for Bing. So no, despite search is becoming more prominent with a new name, Microsoft's search engine Bing isn't going away. Instead Microsoft Search is actually the new name for a combination of Bing and the search results users might expect to find in Windows applications.
"We think this is one of the most profound things we’ve done in a while,” says Jeff Teper, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Office.
All of these updates are mostly aimed for Microsoft 365 subscribers. Unfortunately for Home users, they won't see that much change.