Microsoft Lets Users Contextually Search the Web in Word Online

Microsoft has announced Insights for Office, a Bing-based search service that will initially appear in Office Word Online. The service works based on the context of documents to present users with a relevant result.

Microsoft calls Insights for Office an “intelligent search experience” and Word Online users don’t need to do anything to get it: the software company will roll it out automatically in the coming days. For now, the service is only available in the English language. Users can enter a search term in the appropriate window in the Ribbon bar or select part of a text and choose ‘Insights’ after a right-click.

According to Microsoft, Bing provides results based on the context of documents, a capability the search engine could have thanks to Microsoft’s research into machine learning. The company gives the example that Insights provides the user with information about the president in a search for ‘Lincoln’, if the text shows that the user is writing about this, and not about the movie, the car brand or the city. Results are displayed next to documents, and information comes from Wikipedia, Snapshot, and Bing Image Search, among others.