Instead you worry about Microsoft axing it? Sure, it might take 3 years instead of 6 months, and the shutdown period would be 1 year instead of 1 month, but hardly either are long-term solutions.

> it might take 3 years instead of 6 months, and the shutdown period would be 1 year instead of 1 month

This matters much more than people (and evidently those within Google) realize

It matters more the shorter your future planning is. Neither works if you're looking forward 3-4 years, for example.

Why wouldn’t it work if you plan ahead 3-4 years?

Planning ahead doesn’t mean you never suffer from unexpected events, including depreciations. And long timelines help you as much as anyone else.

Having been downsizing my horde of computer junk I have several large boxes of full MSDN disc sets. There is a graveyard of MS stuff that is no longer supported. The only thing with MS is they seem to give you a better off ramp usually than 'oh well sucks to be you'.

Bing Custom Search was discontinued last year. Although duckduckgo probably has some kind of special contract with Microsoft.