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Windows 10 Web Search gets a tad more useful

The most recent Insider Build of the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update comes with extended web search functionality that makes it a tad more useful than it is right now in stable versions of Windows 10.

Microsoft integrated web search capabilities into the default search functionality on Windows 10. This means that Windows 10 users may get search results returned to them when they run searches on the device.

I did not find this particularly useful, as Windows 10 returns search suggestions only. This means that you don't get any results displayed to you, but only some suggestions.

One of the first guides that I published for Windows 10 was a guide that explained how to turn off web search on Windows 10. Microsoft removed the option to disable web searching in the Cortana and Settings user interface in the Anniversary Update version of Windows 10.

It is still possible to disable web search on Windows 10, but one needs to either use the Group Policy or the Registry for that.

Windows 10 Extended Web Search

windows 10 extended web search

If you run a search on a recent Windows 10 Insider Build, you may notice that it offers extended search functionality now. What is meant by that is that search returns more information to you than just search suggestions.

Note: This seems to be live for US English search systems only right now.

Basically, what happens is that you get the current search suggestions of Windows 10 search on the left, and a snapshot of Bing's results page on the right.

Since you get live results, running searches from your Windows 10 desktop may provide you with answers right away. It depends on what you are looking for obviously.

You can scroll the results in the right pane, and even click on some content links to have them displayed directly on the page (those provided by Bing usually, like the see more link you see on the screenshot above).

You can use the mouse to select a different suggestion, and get instant results on the right pane based on the selection.

A click on links opens the result in Microsoft Edge. You can click on any of the links on the right preview pane as well to load this page directly.

Closing Words

I find this more useful than the current implementation as it provides some content that users may find useful. The fact that you are limited to Bing and Microsoft Edge is a bummer. While I do not mind that the results are opened in Edge, I very much like to run searches on my preferred search engine and not on Bing.

Now You: What is your take on web search functionality on Windows 10?

 

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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