Microsoft is fixing one of the most baffling things about Windows 11 — 'spam' in search results | Tech Radar
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Microsoft is fixing one of the most baffling things about Windows 11 — 'spam' in search results
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Microsoft is applying an important fix to Windows 11 search
The taskbar search box will no longer surface web results as a priority in some cases
This was baffling behavior at times — and part of promoting Bing and Edge — so it's good to see the practice ending
If you've ever muttered under your breath with annoyance at Windows 11's baffling search results, here's some good news — Microsoft is fixing it so the operating system doesn't surface web results as a priority.
It's a frustration that anyone who uses Windows 11 and has ever used the search box on the taskbar is surely familiar with. You want to find a file on your drive, or a system setting for something, so you type that query in — and the first result you see is for something on the web that's totally irrelevant.
However, as Windows Latest points out, Microsoft has realized that this behavior — and often pushing Bing, or its other services, through these web results — isn't acceptable, and gets in the way of the usability of Windows 11's search functionality.
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In a recently released Windows 11 preview build in the Experimental channel for testers, Microsoft said it is changing the taskbar search box to ensure results are more relevant, and that: "Files and apps more reliably appear ahead of web suggestions when your content is a stronger match."
Microsoft further notes that we can "expect to see additional relevance improvements" for search in the future.
That doesn't mean web results are going to be completely ditched from Windows 11 search, mind you, and that's a prospect which seems unlikely.
So, files and apps (or settings) now take priority when you're hunting for something via the Windows 11 search box, over anything that Microsoft might flag up on the web.
Windows Latest highlights how a search for a Windows 11 app used to turn up a movie from the web as the first result, and notes that now, even when deliberately searching for terms which also apply to famous film titles, this is no longer happening.
Of course, there's a theme here that runs through many of the changes Microsoft is applying to Windows 11, namely that these should have been in place from the very start with the OS.
Who on earth wants to be searching for files only to have meaningless web results clutter up the place? Microsoft, that's who, for the clicks the firm is hoping to get as an excuse to pop up Bing (and Edge). For me, this is the equivalent of 'spam' infiltrating search results.
At any rate, better late than never as they say, and I'm still very glad to see this happening — although all these kinds of adjustments remind us why this is a campaign about Microsoft fixing Windows 11 rather than improving the operating system. And that it was Microsoft's fault that it was broken in the first place, of course, and has remained that way for so long until an AI rebellion finally made the company sit up and take notice.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for Tech Radar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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