Facebook drops Microsoft's Bing search engine in favor of their own

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Facebook is now relying on its own internal search engine, choosing to drop Microsoft-owned Bing from its social media platform.

Facebook had used Bing as a way to add muscle to its internal search mechanism while it continued to build out its own search functions.

Several reports suggested Facebook has dropped Bing "quietly," but a Microsoft representative told Venture Beat that the move actually came "a while ago."

In a statement released through Venture Beat, Facebook stated: "We're not currently showing web search results in Facebook Search because we're focused on helping people find what's been shared with them on Facebook."

"We continue to have a great partnership with Microsoft in lots of different areas," Facebook's representative added.

Microsoft echoed its business partner, saying: "Facebook recently changed its search experience to focus on helping people tap into information that's been shared with them on Facebook versus a broader set of web results. We continue to partner with Facebook in many different areas."

In addition to affording Facebook time to work on its own search engine capabilities, utilizing Bing allowed the social media giants to keep tech rival Google out of their system.