Bing search operators do not function properly, or work in ways that are unexpected, and sometimes outright conflict with their intended use.

Question

This is pretty self-explanatory, but some of Bing's search operators, specifically using the - to remove certain terms from search (as this operator was intended - see the instructions here for explanation of the "-" operator).

I f the operator "-" doesn't RELIABLY and PREDICTABLEY work in practice, and is so easily broken that it's essentially non-functional, or does the opposite of what it is intended to do, why is it even included or suggested for Bing search?

To replicate this strange behavior, simply search for something in Bing, and use the "-" operator to omit a term from the search (not this applies to most Bing operators, I'm just singling out "-" because it's reliably broken). One of a few things will probably happen:

1. You will get the term included in the search results anyway, even though you used "-" as suggested.
2. You will get search results with the term prioritized over other results.
3. If you're extremely lucky, it might work for a minority of searches, though this is extremely rare.

Example screenshot:

I want to use Bing search, I really do, but I have to use Google instead of Bing search because Google's search operators work as expected every time, all the time, reliably.

Answer 1

I think I found out why this is.

Microsoft gets paid to make sure you cannot exclude certain words.

I'm so sick of "THE BEST X OF 20XX" results.

Answer 2

All about the $$ of course

Answer 3

This is terrible. Even Google, a giant company, let's you use search operators that are functional and work correctly as expected.

I don't want to use Bing if it's search operators don't work as expected, especially if it doesn't work by design.

It's a shame too, but I love MS Office and I actually enjoy Edge. I would literally convert to Bing full-time if the search operators worked.

Maybe there's a workaround or something. A browser add-on or user script. I don't know.

Answer 4

Well, looks like the Copilot AI agrees the Bing search operators do not work. It even implies to use Google instead.

Answer 5

Its October of 2024 and this issue is still not fixed. It is incredible how Windows will keep pushing me to use Edge, but Microsoft won't even put in the work to support the bare minimum.