Bing tests bolded HTTPS and snippets without site names

Microsoft is testing two changes to how Bing displays result snippets, reported by Search Engine Roundtable within days of each other in September 2026: bolding the https portion of the URL, and removing the site name line so a favicon and URL with breadcrumbs stand alone. Both were spotted by Sachin Patel. Neither has a confirmed rollout date or a statement from Microsoft.

What the HTTPS bolding test does#

Search Engine Roundtable reported on 4 September 2026 that Bing is bolding just the https segment of the displayed URL in search results, leaving the rest of the URL in normal weight. The treatment had only been observed in sponsored results at the time of reporting; the outlet said it could not reproduce the same bolding in organic listings, so whether it extends there is unverified.

This is not Microsoft’s first attempt at flagging secure connections in the results page. The company has previously tried other HTTPS indicators, including lock icons next to the URL, before arriving at this bolded-text version. Treat it as another entry in that ongoing experimentation rather than a settled design.

What the site names removal test does#

Two days earlier, on 2 September 2026, Search Engine Roundtable reported a separate Bing test that removes the site name from the snippet entirely. In its place, the result shows a favicon followed by the site’s URL and breadcrumb path, with no separate bolded site-name line above it. The report included before-and-after screenshots showing the change against Bing’s standard snippet layout.

How it compares to Google’s test#

Search Engine Roundtable’s report on the site name change notes that Google tried something similar about a year earlier: in May 2025, Google removed website names from some results and showed the URL instead. Bing’s September 2026 test follows the same idea on its own SERP, but it is a separate experiment run independently by Microsoft, not a continuation of Google’s test or evidence the two companies are coordinating.

Why we care#

Neither test has a confirmed rollout, and Microsoft has not published anything explaining either one. What both share is a shift in where trust signals sit in a snippet: HTTPS bolding pulls attention toward the URL’s security marker, and site name removal pulls attention away from the brand label a site has spent years building recognition for and puts weight on the raw URL and favicon instead. If either ships broadly, sites that rely on a distinctive site name to stand out in results lose that line, and clean, recognizable domains and favicons become a bigger part of how a result reads at a glance.