Microsoft Corp. today backflipped on its controversial decision to install Bing as the default search engine in Google Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus users.

The original decision announced Jan. 22 was justified on the grounds that it will allow users in an organization to “take advantage of Microsoft Search, including being able to access relevant workplace information directly from the browser address bar.”

But it was not well-received. The forced change to Bing was meant to start with update Version 2002 that was scheduled to roll out in mid-February.

Spinning the backflip, the Office 365 team said in a blog post that it had “heard concerns about the way we were planning to roll this value out,” the value referring to the forced Bing install. “Most importantly, we heard that customers don’t want Office 365 ProPlus to change search defaults without an opt-in, and they need a way to govern these changes on unmanaged devices,” the team added. 

Instead, the Microsoft Search in Bing browser extension will no longer be automatically deployed with Office 365 ProPlus. Administrators are being given the ability to opt in to deploy the browser extension. In addition, Office 365 ProPlus will only deploy the extension on AD-joined devices, devices with Azure Active Directory support. 

Because of the decision, Version 2002 is no longer shipping with Office 365 ProPlus. An updated timeline for a new rollout, sans compulsory Bing integration, will be provided over the next few weeks.

The decision to force Bing on Chrome users was a bizarre one from the moment it was announced. Microsoft has done much to improve its reputation over the years, particularly under the leadership of Chief Executive Satya Nadella, turning a company once famous for its anti-competitive plays to one highly respected for playing nicer. The decision to force Bing on users harks back to the old Microsoft, the company that forced Internet Explorer on users while ignoring sometimes web standards.

If Microsoft had gone ahead with the decision, it also might have attracted legal attention. Microsoft has settled lawsuits in the past by promising not to force services and software on users, the most famous being the Internet Explorer settlement. Forcing Bing on users could have breached some of those settlements.

Image: Marco Verch/Flickr