Microsoft reverse Office 365 Chrome browser plugin plan to force switch to Bing Search

January 22nd Microsoft announced “Beginning with Version 2002 of Office 365 ProPlus, Microsoft will install a browser extension that makes Bing the default search engine for Google Chrome”

I wrote at the time, this was an overreach. Changing a users default search engine, in a app not even owned by Microsoft.

Good news. It took longer than I expected, but Microsoft have just posted that they have reversed this decision.

• The Microsoft Search in Bing browser extension will not be automatically deployed with Office 365 ProPlus.  
• Through a new toggle in Microsoft 365 admin center, administrators will be able to opt in to deploy the browser extension to their organization through Office 365 ProPlus.  
• In the near term, Office 365 ProPlus will only deploy the browser extension to AD-joined devices, even within organizations that have opted in. In the future we will add specific settings to govern the deployment of the extension to unmanaged devices. 

You can get full details in their new post here.

It’s good news they changed this decision.