If you miss the good old days when Redmond used to roll out mega new features for Windows 10 like Timeline, then Microsoft Search for Windows 10 should quench your thirst.
Think of this as the unification of search across all that Microsoft offers, web to local.
It is a standalone search platform that brings together search services across the company’s portfolio products like Bing, OneDrive, SharePoint and Outlook. The idea is to make it easier for users to look for more information from one single place.
Since this service ties in with enterprise-specific data, and makes use of insights from Microsoft Graph to provide personalized search results, users not only get results from the web, but also results that are specific to their company like schedules, personnel, and internal documentation.
The software titan unveiled this new feature all the way back at Ignite 2018, with the service hitting general availability status in May 2019.
It was on track to make it to the OS with the May 2019 Update, but that never quite happened.
Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet followed up on this in March, and found that the company was targeting a release sometime in Q4 2020. However, a new roadmap listing has been spotted, suggesting that the service will make it to Windows 10 in September 2020.
As part of Microsoft 365, of course.
With the addition of this feature to the operating system, enterprises will be able to tailor searches depending on their requirements and policies. Admins will also have the option to monitor searches to improve functionality.
What is not known at this point in time is whether this feature will be available to all Microsoft 365 enterprise customers by September, or if it will be a gradual rollout.
Also, if this feature would require any major updates to the Windows 10 OS itself.
Guess we’ll find out soon.
