Bing now asks some searchers to verify they are human

Search Engine Roundtable reports that Bing is asking some searchers to verify they are human before it shows results. The report is thin, and this article states only what it and one related report contain.

What is Bing showing users?#

According to Search Engine Roundtable, some users who search on Bing first see a “verify you are human” screen. It tells them to take “one last step” and solve “the challenge below to continue,” and the reported challenge is a checkbox. Sachin Patel, who posted it on X and on Search Engine Watch, wrote: “When a user searches for something, this verification screen appears before showing the results.” The evidence is a screenshot Patel supplied.

Can anyone reproduce it?#

Not in the source. Barry Schwartz wrote that he cannot replicate it. The report does not say what triggers the screen, how many users see it or whether it is a test or a permanent change. Bing has not been quoted explaining it. Treat it as an unconfirmed, intermittent behavior.

How does this relate to Google?#

Schwartz frames Bing as following Google, which he says is asking users to verify they are human “a lot, in various forms.” The same publication reports that Google has been blocking scrapers and third-party tracking tools more effectively since around 13 September. Nozzle’s Derek Perkins cited about an 80% drop in the data he could get from Google, and said he saw the same with data from DataForSEO. Sistrix posted on its status page on 16 September that its data collection was running at a reduced rate after Google changed how results are delivered.

That report does not link Bing’s screen to any of it, and neither do we. Our fuller write-up of the Google side is Google appears to be blocking scrapers and rank trackers harder.

What should SEOs do about it?#

Nothing that changes a strategy yet. The practical risk is to data, not rankings:

• If you run rank tracking or scraping against Bing, watch for challenge pages in your responses and log them rather than treating them as results.
• If a third-party tool shows a sudden drop in Bing or Google visibility, check it against your own analytics before acting. Schwartz warns that tool data may be wrong while blocking is in flux.

For the wider context, see the technical SEO hub. We will update this piece if Bing comments.