Glossary
Content Search
Microsoft Purview's keyword search across Microsoft 365 content for compliance and investigation.
Content search in Microsoft Purview is the keyword-search capability across Exchange mailboxes, SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, Teams chats and channels, and Viva Engage — used for compliance investigations, eDiscovery, and ad-hoc lookups. Built on the same indexing as Microsoft Search. Searches support keyword operators (AND, OR, NOT, NEAR), KQL-style property filters (subject:invoice, from:user@domain.com, sent>=2025-01-01), and date / size ranges. Results can be previewed, exported as PST or MSG / native, or used as the basis for an eDiscovery case with holds. Content search is the entry-level capability; eDiscovery Standard and eDiscovery Premium layer richer workflow on top.