Bing is a search engine, not a web browser. A browser (Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Safari, Firefox) is the app you use to open websites; Bing is a website and service you use inside a browser to find things. Edge uses Bing by default, which is why the two are often confused.
Search engine vs. browser
| Search engine | Web browser | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A service that indexes the web and answers searches | An app that opens and displays websites |
| Microsoft's product | Bing | Microsoft Edge |
| Examples | Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo | Edge, Chrome, Safari, Firefox |
| You can swap it | Yes, in your browser's settings | Yes, in your device's default apps |
You can use Bing in any browser by going to bing.com, and you can use Edge with a different search engine.
How Bing works
- Crawling: Bingbot visits web pages and follows links. Site owners can also notify Bing of new pages instantly through the IndexNow protocol.
- Indexing: pages are analysed and stored in Bing's index.
- Ranking: when you search, Bing picks and orders results based on relevance, quality, freshness, your location and language.
- Answers: Bing adds instant answers, maps, images, videos and AI-generated summaries where helpful.
What Bing offers
- Web, image, video, news, maps and shopping search.
- Visual search with your camera or a photo.
- Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant, which uses Bing to search the web.
- A new homepage photograph every day. See where today's Bing picture is from.
- Microsoft Rewards points for searching, in supported countries.
- A searchable, deletable history: check your Bing history.
Services that run on Bing
Bing supplies results to Yahoo and much of DuckDuckGo's traditional links (details), and powers search in Windows, Copilot and Microsoft 365.
Bing's market share
Bing handles about 4.5% of searches worldwide (August 2026, StatCounter), second behind Google.
Frequently asked questions
Is Microsoft Bing a browser?
No. Bing is a search engine. Microsoft's browser is Edge.
Is the Bing app a browser?
The Microsoft Bing app is a search app for phones. It opens results in a built-in viewer, but it isn't a full web browser like Edge or Chrome.
How old is Bing?
Bing launched in June 2009, so it turned 17 in 2026.