Microsoft faced severe backlash from internet users following a significant technical glitch that disrupted several of its services, including major search engines.
Early on Thursday morning, Bing.com and DuckDuckGo experienced outages, with users reporting issues for over seven hours.
The outage also affected ChatGPT and Ecosia, highlighting the widespread impact of the disruption.
Users Vent Frustrations on Social Media
Disgruntled users took to social media platform X to voice their frustrations, arguing that a modern browser should not experience such downtime. One user likened the outage to a return to the Stone Age, while another joked about the possible approach of doomsday due to multiple search engines being down simultaneously.
Outage Details and User Experiences
Reports on X indicated that users encountered either blank pages or a 429 HTTP code error when attempting to access the affected sites. While Bing.com and DuckDuckGo were able to load, they failed to produce search results.
One user expressed frustration over losing access to tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, even for a short duration.
Another user humorously suggested that the hamsters running the servers might have gone on strike.
Industry Reactions and Official Responses
DuckDuckGo issued a brief statement acknowledging the issue and thanking users for their patience. They posted on X: “We’re currently experiencing an issue with DuckDuckGo Search that might prevent you from getting results.
Thanks for your patience while we get our ducks in a row.”
Microsoft also responded via its Microsoft365 Status account, indicating that they were investigating the issue affecting Microsoft Copilot services.
Possible Causes and Current Status
The exact cause of the problem remained unidentified as teams worked on resolving the issue.
As of 7:30 AM, DailyMail.com reported that Bing’s search functionality had been restored, although DuckDuckGo continued to experience difficulties displaying search results.
The outage highlighted the dependence of many services on Bing’s API, despite Google’s dominance in web searching.
Background on DuckDuckGo and Microsoft
DuckDuckGo, a privately held company, generates approximately $100 million in annual revenue, handling about 2.5% of US search queries.
By comparison, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, boasts nearly $240 billion in revenue. Much of DuckDuckGo’s search capability relies on Microsoft’s Bing search engine, a fact confirmed by founder Gabriel Weinberg during congressional testimony.
Despite DuckDuckGo’s emphasis on privacy, it was revealed in 2022 that the company allowed Microsoft to track some users, sparking controversy.
Previous Microsoft Outages and Security Breaches
This recent outage follows a significant disruption in January 2024, when Microsoft’s Teams service went down across North and South America.
Teams, a widely used messaging and videoconferencing app, has over 320 million monthly users.
That same month, Microsoft disclosed a security breach by a Russian state-sponsored group, Midnight Blizzard, which accessed corporate email accounts and stole sensitive information.
The hackers employed a “password spray attack,” starting in November 2023, to infiltrate Microsoft’s systems.
Conclusion: User Expectations and Corporate Accountability
The recent outage underscores the high expectations users have for uninterrupted service in today’s digital age.
While technical glitches are sometimes unavoidable, the extended downtime and its impact on multiple high-profile services sparked significant user frustration and highlighted the importance of robust infrastructure and prompt issue resolution.
As Microsoft continues to address the outage and its causes, the incident serves as a reminder of the critical role that reliable digital services play in daily life and the need for companies to maintain rigorous standards of service and security.
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