[cmyr]

In reality, how many people are regularly using github search without having a github account? Can this change really be expected to bring in a meaningful number of users?

Trying to think this through, my own best guess for what is going on is that there is some amount of traffic coming from bots/scripts and github would like to have all queries associated with an account so that they can block accounts? I'm not sure if this makes sense, but I think it's a reasonable possibility.

[fyokdrigd]

most open source projects migrated to gh when they pledged it would always be free and open for open source...

now under new ownership they closed search and "pray they don't alter the terms further"

ps: also everyone here guessing wrong. Microsoft is an advertising company. requiring you profile for a service is self explanatory.

[jabradoodle]

Is it really an advertising company?

Seems to be around 5pc revenue from a quick search.

Not that I want to defend Microsoft.