Bing, Microsoft's search engine, is currently not working properly. At first, I found that I couldn't perform any web searches. The search results appear to be loading correctly now.
However, the outage appears to still be impacting Bing's application programming interface (API), meaning other services that rely on Bing are not working properly.
For example, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia, two alternative search engines that rely on Bing search results, are currently not returning search results. Microsoft Copilot is also not loaded. ChatGPT Plus subscribers who can perform web searches will also receive an error when trying to search for something.
Screenshot: TechCrunch / Romain Dirett
Once again, the failure proves the web's dependence on a small number of technology companies. When an API goes down, many services are affected.
In this particular case, it's interesting to note the increasingly important role of Bing's API: While Google still dominates when it comes to web search, many services now rely on Bing's API.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the outage.