What you need to know
- Microsoft announced a new version of Bing yesterday that's powered by ChatGPT and AI.
- The search engine uses artificial intelligence to understand questions written with natural language and to search the web for relevant responses.
- Almost 40% of our polled readers plan to switch to the new Bing.
Microsoft announced a new Bing powered by ChatGPT yesterday. The revamped search engine uses artificial intelligence to scour the web for answers to questions. It's powered by the next generation of OpenAI's large language model and uses Microsoft's Prometheus model to deliver timely and relevant results. On paper, all of that should mean a more powerful search engine that's tremendously more capable than the previous version of Bing as well as Google.
In practice, we'll have to wait to see how the new Bing handles real-world queries. Microsoft shared some examples, but that's different from millions of people asking questions.
Following yesterday's announcement, we asked our readers if they plan to switch to the new Bing powered by ChatGPT. The results surprised me. Just under 40% of our readers said they'd switch to Microsoft's new search engine.
Of course, our readers don't represent the general population. A site called Windows Central is going to attract people that use quite a few Microsoft products. Look no further than the fact that 39.2% of our readers that voted already use Bing. According to StatCounter, Bing only holds a 3% market share in search. That share is higher on desktop (8.87%) but is still a far cry from our voters.
So rather than trying to extrapolate how general users will react to the new Bing, I think it's best to look at these poll results within the scope of our audience. On a site in which almost 40% of poll participants already use Bing almost another 40% are going to switch to Microsoft's search engine now that ChatGPT is integrated. If that holds true in actual usage, that would be about a 100% increase among polled readers.
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said yesterday was a "new day for search." The new Bing seems to be turning quite a few heads. We'll have to see if that translates to more users, especially after Google shows off its ChatGPT competitor, Bard, this week.
We have a guide on how to sign up for the new Bing powered by ChatGPT that outlines how to add your name to the wait list.
