Earlier today, Bing, Copilot, DuckDuckGo, and ChatGPT search functions went down due to a major Microsoft outage. People in Asia and Europe who use these services for their searches or digital assistants woke up finding out that they could not get a response from them anymore. The issue began around 3:00 AM Eastern Time, causing inconvenience for many people.
People using Bing saw empty pages or an odd 429 HTTP code mistake. But they could still reach Bing’s search function using a certain URL. The blackout didn’t only affect Bing; Copilot services over web, mobile, and Windows integration were completely offline. It also affected ChatGPT’s internet search and DuckDuckGo. Both depend on Bing’s API (Application Programming Interface), causing users to encounter error messages while attempting searches.
Curiously, even though Microsoft didn’t say anything about it, OpenAI recognized the problems with ChatGPT internet search on their support page. While searching for information on ChatGPT, you get an error message that says, “It looks like there was an issue with retrieving the information about the latest ChatGPT outage right now. You might want to check the OpenAI status page or their official social media channels for any updates on outages. Feel free to ask if you need any other information or assistance!”
People who were using DuckDuckGo also felt hassled. The DuckDuckGo error message, “There was an error displaying the search results. Please try again,” appeared frequently, making clear how these services are connected and interweaved.
Such outages remind us how much we rely on digital services and the domino effect a problem in one place can have on many platforms. Let us hope that Microsoft fixes its search functions as soon as possible.