Early Thursday morning, several prominent web search and AI tools, including Microsoft’s Bing search engine, DuckDuckGo, Copilot, and ChatGPT’s internet search capabilities, experienced significant outages.
As of 6:30 a.m. ET, DuckDuckGo and Microsoft’s AI Copilot remained unavailable for many users in the US. While Bing’s website appeared operational and returned search results, BleepingComputer reported that around 4:45 a.m. ET, some users encountered 429 HTTP code errors on Bing.com.
DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine that relies on Bing’s API, displayed an error message when users attempted searches via desktop browsers. “We’re currently experiencing an issue with DuckDuckGo Search that might prevent you from getting results,” the search engine confirmed at approximately 4:21 a.m. ET, adding: “Thanks for your patience while we get our ducks in a row.”
This outage followed closely on the heels of DuckDuckGo’s announcement of several new features on Wednesday, including a paid “Privacy Pro” subscription option and new syncing and backup features. According to DownDetector.com, thousands of users reported issues with DuckDuckGo Thursday morning.
The disruptions affected users across multiple platforms, highlighting the interconnected nature of modern search and AI services. As of now, there has been no official statement from Microsoft regarding the cause of the outages affecting Bing and Copilot.
The issues have since begun to resolve, but users are advised to check for updates from the respective service providers. The temporary unavailability of these tools underscores the importance of reliable access to web search and AI capabilities in our daily digital lives.
