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  • AI Helps Drive Bing Across the 100M Daily User Threshold

    AI Helps Drive Bing Across the 100M Daily User Threshold

    Bing has hit an important milestone, thanks to an AI-driven boost, now boasting 100 million Daily Active Users.

    Bing may be the second-largest search engine in the world, but it’s still a distant second to Google. The company’s foray into AI-powered search has certainly helped it gain some ground, turning Bing into a household name and helping drive the search engine across the 100M Daily Active User mark.

    Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s VP for Modern Life, Search and Devices, broke the news in a blog post:

    We are pleased to share that after a number of years of steady progress, and with a little bit of a boost from the million+ new Bing preview users, we have crossed 100M Daily Active Users of Bing. This is a surprisingly notable figure, and yet we are fully aware we remain a small, low, single digit share player. That said, it feels good to be at the dance!

    Interestingly, the uptick is not just old users returning to give Bing and its AI another try:

    Of the millions of active users of the new Bing preview, it’s great to see that roughly one third are new to Bing. We see this appeal of the new Bing as a validation of our view that search is due for a reinvention and of the unique value proposition of combining Search + Answers + Chat + Creation in one experience.

    Mehdi also attributes the growth to Bing’s search results being better than ever:

    The second factor driving trial and usage is that our core web search ranking has taken several significant jumps in relevancy due to the introduction of the Prometheus model so our Bing search quality is at an all-time high.

    It’s nice to see Bing gaining traction and continuing to provide an alternative to Google’s dominance.

  • Mini-Review: Brave Search Introduces AI-Powered Summarizer

    Mini-Review: Brave Search Introduces AI-Powered Summarizer

    Brave Search has unveiled its latest feature, the AI-powered Summarizer, which is designed to give users quick answers.

    Microsoft Bing may be getting much of the news coverage for AI-powered search, but Brave is a popular, privacy-focused search engine that is also integrating AI capabilities. The company’s Summarizer tool is designed to give users “concise and to-the-point answers at the top of Brave Search results pages.”

    Best known for its Brave web browser, the company acquired the open search engine Tailcat in early 2021 and used it as the basis for its Brave Search. The company’s search engine is unique in that it is one of the few independent search engines that has its own web index. In contrast, many other independent search engines use Google or Bing and strip out those companies’ trackers.

    Read more: Brave Search Enters Public Beta

    I personally am a big fan of Brave Search, using it more times than I can count throughout the day. While it’s not perfect, I find Brave to provide more relevant results than either Google or Bing in many categories.

    The Summarizer began showing up at the top of Brave searches on March 2. In just the last few days, I’ve come to rely on the feature more and more, especially when looking for quick answers.

    For example, searching for “best Linux text editor” produces this answer:

    Brave Summarizer – Best Linux Text Editor

    Asking “what is WebProNews” results in:

    Brave Summarizer – What Is WebProNews

    Just for laughs, I even asked, “who is matt milano tech journalist,” and received this:

    Brave Summarizer – Who Is Matt Milano

    At least Summarizer didn’t confuse me with a certain NFL player…

    As the company points out and is evident in the above screenshots, Brave’s Summarizer is designed to provide authoritative answers, even backing them up with sources. The company emphasizes this advantage in its blog:

    Unlike a purely generative AI model, which is prone to spout unsubstantiated assertions, we trained our large language models (LLMs) to process multiple sources of information present on the Web. This produces a more concise, accurate answer, expressed in coherent language.

    In addition, the provenance of original sources of data is cited at all times via links. This maintains the rightful attribution of information, and helps users assess the trustworthiness of the sources, both of which are needed to mitigate the authority biases of large language models.

    It’s clear from Brave’s approach that the company does not believe in relying solely on AI for answers but believes it should be used responsibly, in combination with “critical thinking.”

    Using Web results enables the Summarizer to provide real-time information that is up to date with today’s events. Given the current advancements in AI, it’s crucial to remind users that one should not believe everything an AI system produces, in much the same way one should not believe everything that is published on the Web. At the risk of stating the obvious, we should not suspend critical thinking for anything we consume, no matter how impressive the results of AI models can be.

    “With 22 million queries per day, Brave Search is the fastest growing search engine since Bing. We provide independent search results from our own index of the Web, and today we’re further improving the relevance of those results with our AI-powered Summarizer,” said Josep M. Pujol, Chief of Search at Brave. “Unlike AI chat tools which can provide fabricated responses, the Summarizer generates a plain-written summary at the top of the search results page, aggregating the latest sources on the Web and providing source attribution for transparency and accountability. This open system is available to all Brave Search users today to help them better navigate search results.”

    Overall, I’m impressed with Brave’s implementation and will continue to rely heavily on it. Hopefully, the company will continue to evolve and improve it even more. In the meantime, all users can try it out without joining a waitlist.

  • Google Brings ‘Retail Search’ to Cloud Customers

    Google Brings ‘Retail Search’ to Cloud Customers

    Google is expanding its cloud services, bringing Retail Search to its clients in an effort to help them provide the best experience to their own customers.

    One of the biggest issues online shoppers face is finding the products they’re interested in. This can especially be apparent when comparing retail platform search capabilities with the Google Search features customers have become accustomed to.

    Google Cloud is now bringing the power of its search to retail clients, with Retail Search, which the company unveiled in a blog.

    This fully managed service is easily customizable, enabling organizations to craft shopper-focused search experiences. Our site search solution builds upon decades of Google’s experience and innovation in search indexing, retrieval, and ranking. Retailers can make product discovery even easier for shoppers, while optimizing for their business goals with advanced capabilities

    Retail Search gives clients the ability to offer advanced query understanding, meaning customers will have better success finding what they’re looking for even with the broadest of search terms. The service also includes semantic search, which matches product attributes with relevant products.

    Customers are already seeing the benefit of Retail Search.

    “With limited customer signals and no historical data, descriptive long-tail searches are some of the most challenging queries to understand,” said Neelima Sharma, senior vice president, technology, e-commerce, marketing and merchandising at Lowe’s. “We have been partnering with Google Cloud to give our customers relevant results for long-tail searches and have seen an increase in click-through and search conversion and a drop in our ‘No Results Found’ rate since we launched.”

    Google Cloud customers interested in learning more can visit Discovery Solutions for Retail or contact their Google Cloud field sales representative.

  • Users Can Now Adjust Bing AI’s Personality

    Users Can Now Adjust Bing AI’s Personality

    Microsoft has added a major new feature to its Bing AI, allowing users to choose how they want the AI to behave.

    Microsoft announced a preview of its AI-powered Bing search in early February. The AI is a new and improved version of the OpenAI tech behind ChatGPT. Early reviews have been all over the place, with people ranging from impressed to creeped out.

    Microsoft has been steadily improving the experience, with the most recent feature upgrade giving users the ability to dial in how Bing will respond and interact. A new toggle gives users the ability to choose between More Creative, More Balanced, and More Precise. The company describes each option:

    More Creative

    Responses are original and imaginative, creating surprise and entertainment for you.

    More Balanced

    Responses are reasonable and coherent, balancing accuracy and creativity in conversation.

    More Precise

    Responses are factual and concise, prioritizing accuracy and relevancy for you.

    The new options are a nice touch, giving users more control over the experience.

  • DOJ Says Google Misled It, “Systematically Destroyed” Messages

    DOJ Says Google Misled It, “Systematically Destroyed” Messages

    The Department of Justice says Google “systematically destroyed” messages and misled the agency about its actions.

    US companies are required by law to keep copies of internal communications if there is any reasonable anticipation of upcoming litigation. In Google’s case, the DOJ argues in its filing that the company should have anticipated the government’s legal action against it as early as mid-2019, according to CNBC.

    In spite of the DOJ’s belief that Google should have anticipated the current litigation, the company continued to delete its internal chats every 24 hours…right up to this month. Instead, the company left it up to individuals to decide whether they would keep or auto-delete their messages.

    “Few, if any,” did, says the DOJ.

    To make matters worse, the DOJ says the company repeatedly and “falsely” told the agency that it had ”‘put a legal hold in place’ that ‘suspends auto-deletion.’”

    See Also: States Sue Google for Antitrust

    As a result of the DOJ’s claims, Judge James Donato indicated at the end of January that he would consider an adverse jury instruction, although he would be open to allowing the jury to arrive at their own conclusions regarding the implications of Google’s actions.

    Eileen Scallen, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, told CNBC that an adverse jury instruction would be “very damning.”

    “The one person the jury respects in a courtroom is the trial judge,” Scallen said. “And if the trial judge is telling them you can presume that this was bad news for Google, they’re going to take that to heart.”

    In the meantime, Google is disputing the DOJ’s claims. A company spokesperson told CNBC that company officials “strongly refute the DOJ’s claims. Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation. In fact, we have produced over 4 million documents in this case alone, and millions more to regulators around the world.”

    Given the various antitrust investigations that have been building against the company for years, it is hard to fathom any halfway intelligent individual not anticipating possible litigation against the company. Google may well have dug its own grave on this one.

  • It’s Official: Bing Is Cool, and Google Search Is In Trouble

    It’s Official: Bing Is Cool, and Google Search Is In Trouble

    Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing represents an existential threat to Google’s search, with early reports suggesting Google may be in serious trouble.

    Microsoft unveiled its AI-powered Bing last week, using a new and improved version of the OpenAI tech behind ChatGPT. The move is largely seen as one of the biggest challenges Google has faced to its core search business and could help Bing make major headway against its rival.

    Early reports indicate that Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing is performing far better than critics anticipated and is serving up better results than an old-school Google search. In fact, CNET’s Stephen Shankland put ten questions to both search engines and came away preferring Bing’s response to eight of the questions. Interestingly, Bing did especially well on complex questions, as well as at providing information about recent events, such as the US shooting down a ‘high-altitude object’ over Alaska.

    Read More: Google Won the Search Wars, but Can It Win the AI Search Wars?

    Similarly, Android Central posted a poll to see how many of its readers would be willing to switch to the new Bing once it’s available to the public. A whopping 52% said they would switch and give Bing a try, with 11% already using Bing and only 30% saying they would stick with Google.

    Indeed, Microsoft VP Yusuf Mehdi revealed the company quickly saw more than one million people sign up to test-drive the new Bing.

    Needless to say, Google is not going to take this challenge to its business lying down. In fact, the company has been rushing to roll out its own ChatGPT challenger, Bard. Unfortunately, in its rush, the company bungled Bard’s unveiling. This led to a $100 billion drop in the company’s value and vocal criticism of CEO Sundar Pichai from Google’s own employees.

    The picture is clear: Microsoft has taken an early lead in the AI search wars and is moving quickly to capitalize on it. This has resulted in Bing being seen as cool — quite possibly for the first time ever.

    And Google? Google is in real trouble — quite possibly for the first time ever.

  • Microsoft Expands AI Bing Preview to Mobile Apps & Skype

    Microsoft Expands AI Bing Preview to Mobile Apps & Skype

    Microsoft has expanded its AI-powered Bing preview, incorporating it in Bing and Edge mobile apps, as well as Skype.

    Microsoft announced a version of Bing powered by AI on February 7. The AI is the next-generation version of the OpenAI tech used in ChatGPT. The response to the new Bing has been all over the spectrum, but one thing is clear: Bing is getting more attention than it has in years, if ever.

    As a result, it’s not surprising that Microsoft is continuing to roll out the new search engine, bringing it to Skype, as well as the company’s mobile apps. Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, announced the news in a blog post:

    We’re beginning to roll out the incredible capabilities of the new Bing and Edge on your smartphone along with some exciting new features, such as voice input. In addition, we are creating a new chat experience, beginning with Skype, to enhance your social communications with your friends and family.

    The company also sees Bing as being a copilot for users in their Skype chats:

    Imagine having a copilot for your friends and family as you stay connected and plan your next get together. Simply add Bing to the group, as you would any Skype contact, and now you can ask Bing to answer questions and provide information for the entire group. For example, if your family is chatting about the next family reunion, you can simply ask Bing for suggestions on travel destinations, expected weather forecasts and interesting events around your time of travel, and everyone in the chat will get access to the results. When you are catching up with friends, you can ask Bing to simply fetch information from the web, for example, the latest news or last night’s award shows to add to your conversation.

    Everyone in the preview will automatically have access to the new Bing on both mobile and Skype.

  • Google Reportedly Pays Apple for Chrome Search Revenue on iOS

    Google Reportedly Pays Apple for Chrome Search Revenue on iOS

    In what is sure to be a problem for both companies, an alleged secret non-compete agreement has come to light involving Chrome on iOS.

    According to The Register, Google pays Apple a portion of the revenue it receives from searches in the iOS version of its Chrome web browser. This arrangement is above and beyond what Google pays Apple to be the default search provider on the iPhone and iPad.

    The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a 356-page report in mid-June 2022 detailing the relationship between Google and Apple. Below is an excerpt from that report:

    Google pays Apple a share of the search revenue it earns from browser traffic on iOS in the following contexts: in return for being the default search provider on Safari, Google pays Apple a share of revenue derived from Safari search traffic; and pursuant to various commercial arrangements, Google pays Apple a share of revenue derived from [x] search traffic.

    The Register’s sources have told the outlet that the redacted “x” in the above text stands for “Chrome.”

    Such an arrangement would be relatively unusual since Apple doesn’t actually do anything worthy of receiving a portion of Google’s Chrome search revenue. A clue to the reasoning behind the deal may rest in a private antitrust lawsuit brought against both companies by the Alioto Law Firm in San Francisco.

    “Because more than half of Google’s search business was conducted through Apple devices, Apple was a major potential threat to Google, and that threat was designated by Google as ‘Code Red,’” the complaint argues. “Google paid billions of dollars to Apple and agreed to share its profits with Apple to eliminate the threat and fear of Apple as a competitor.”

    The Register reached out to attorney Joseph M. Alioto, who was not surprised by this report. He did, however, point out the legal issues if such a secret non-compete agreement truly exists.

    “The division of the market is per se illegal under the antitrust laws,” said Alioto.

    If The Register’s sources are correct, and the two companies have colluded to the degree reported, it could be exactly the smoking gun regulators need to take more definitive action against Apple and Google specifically, as well as Big Tech in general.

  • Google CEO Wants Employees to Spend 2-4 Hours Improving Bard AI

    Google CEO Wants Employees to Spend 2-4 Hours Improving Bard AI

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai is pulling out all the stops to improve the company’s Bard AI, asking employees to spend 2-4 hours helping.

    Bard is Google’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The company is playing catch-up to OpenAI and Microsoft, with the latter planning to add ChatGPT’s successor to its Bing search engine. Despite Google’s long history with AI development, Bard’s launch did not go well, with the AI getting an answer wrong in the company’s ad, knocking $100 billion off of Alphabet’s value.

    Pichai is eager to see Bard improve and is recruiting Googlers throughout the company to achieve the goal, according to a memo seen by Business Insider.

    “I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that’s to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential,” Pichai wrote. “The most important thing we can do right now is to focus on building a great product and developing it responsibly.”

    In this memo, Pichai is clearly trying to generate and channel excitement, asking employees to “contribute” their time toward the effort.

    Full memo, courtesy of Insider:

    Hi Googlers,

    Excited to see us opening up Bard for an internal dogfood to help us get it ready for launch. This is an important step as we work to develop the technology responsibly – a big thank you to the Bard team and to everyone who is spending time testing it. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can find instructions on how to participate at go/bard-dogfood.

    I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that’s to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential. This will be a long journey – for everyone, across the field. The most important thing we can do right now is to focus on building a great product and developing it responsibly. That’s why we have thousands of external and internal testers testing Bard’s responses for quality, safety, and groundedness in real-world information. Let’s embrace the challenge and keep iterating, including with users and developers.

    And remember, some of our most successful products were not first to market. They gained momentum because they solved important user needs and were built on deep technical insights. Over time, we earned user trust and more people began to rely on them.

    Here is where we can use your help: Channel the energy and excitement of the moment into our products. Pressure test Bard and make the product better. I would appreciate it if each of you contributed in a deeper way with 2-4 hours of your time. See below for more detail.

    AI has gone through many winters and springs. And now it is blooming again. As an AI-first company, we’ve been working towards this for many years and are ready for it. Let’s stay focused on delivering amazing experiences for our users and launch things we can all be proud of.

    -Sundar

  • AppSheet Founder: Google ‘Slowly Ceased to Function’

    AppSheet Founder: Google ‘Slowly Ceased to Function’

    AppSheet founder Praveen Seshadri, who sold his company to Google Cloud in 2020, has harsh words for the tech giant.

    Seshadri posted a blog on Medium outlining his experience with Google after the company acquired his AppSheet. The founder seems to confirm what many investors and analysts have feared, painting a picture of a company that is floundering and has lost much of what made it special:

    I joined Google just before the pandemic when the company I had co-founded, AppSheet, was acquired by Google Cloud. The acquiring team and executives welcomed us and treated us well. We joined with great enthusiasm and commitment to integrate AppSheet into Google and make it a success. Yet, now at the expiry of my three year mandatory retention period, I have left Google understanding how a once-great company has slowly ceased to function.

    Seshadri then goes on to highlight the crossroads Google is at as Microsoft and its OpenAI-powered Bing threaten the company’s search dominance:

    It is a fragile moment for Google with the pressure from OpenAI + Microsoft. Most people view this challenge along the technology axis, although there is now the gnawing suspicion that it might be a symptom of some deeper malaise. The recent layoffs have caused angst within the company as many employees view this as a failure of management or a surrender to activist investors. In a way, this reflects a general lack of self-awareness across both management and employees.

    Read More: Google Won the Search Wars, but Can It Win the AI Search Wars?

    Ultimately, Seshadri boils Google’s issues down to four specific things:

    (1) no mission, (2) no urgency, (3) delusions of exceptionalism, (4) mismanagement.

    Interestingly, Seshadri makes a similar observation to the one we made here at WPN when we compared Microsoft and Google and drew the conclusion that Google has become risk-averse compared to its Redmond rival:

    Google can no longer seek success by avoiding risk. The path forward has to start with culture change and that has to start at the very top. Google’s senior executives should look at what Satya Nadella did at Microsoft and execute a similar playbook.

    Seshadri’s blog is a lengthy one, detailing far more than we can cover in this article. Nonetheless, it’s an outstanding read and illustrates why it increasingly seems that Google is in real trouble.

  • DuckDuckGPT Combines DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT

    DuckDuckGPT Combines DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT

    Microsoft may be working to bring ChatGPT-based tech to Bing, but one enterprising developer has already the AI to DuckDuckGo.

    DuckDuckGo is the privacy-focused search engine that has steadily been growing in popularity as individuals become more concerned with protecting their online privacy. Developer Adam Lui has created an extension that adds ChatGPT results to the DuckDuckGo sidebar.

    Lui details the necessary steps to install the script on his GitHub page:

    1. Install Tampermonkey (Chrome, Firefox) or Violentmonkey (Chrome, Firefox).
    2. Install DuckDuckGPT.
    3. Visit DuckDuckGo.com and perform a search. The ChatGPT results should show up on the right.

    Microsoft is incorporating an updated and improved version of the tech behind ChatGPT in Bing, but DuckDuckGPT is a nice alternative that’s available right now.

  • Satya Nadella: ‘We Made Google Dance’ With AI-Powered Bing

    Satya Nadella: ‘We Made Google Dance’ With AI-Powered Bing

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is enjoying putting pressure on Google using ChatGPT, saying he has “been waiting for it.”

    Microsoft unveiled an AI-powered version of Bing on Tuesday, offering a limited preview of its next-gen search engine. Microsoft is using a new and improved version of the OpenAI tech behind ChatGPT, and Nadella believes it will finally bring some real competition to the search market.

    In an interview with The Verge, Nadella acknowledged that Google is the undisputed leader but that Microsoft has a real chance to make some headway:

    We competed today. Today was a day where we brought some more competition to search. Believe me, I’ve been at it for 20 years, and I’ve been waiting for it. But look, at the end of the day, they’re the 800-pound gorilla in this. That is what they are. And I hope that, with our innovation, they will definitely want to come out and show that they can dance. And I want people to know that we made them dance, and I think that’ll be a great day.

    Many experts believe AI is poised to revolutionize the search market and represents the biggest threat to Google’s dominance. Nadella is right that Microsoft’s announcement ‘made Google dance,’ with the company scrambling to come up with an answer.

    Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai issued a “code red” in response, and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin began taking a hands-on role in the company for the first time in years. Google unveiled its answer in the form of its Bard AI, only to see it provide the wrong answer to a question in its debut ad.

    If Microsoft is able to execute effectively and capitalize on its position, it could greatly benefit customers, resulting in some of the biggest search innovations in the last two decades.

  • Yahoo Plans to Lay Off 1,000 Now, 600 Later

    Yahoo Plans to Lay Off 1,000 Now, 600 Later

    Yahoo is preparing for a round of layoffs, with plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs now and up to 600 in the second half of 2023.

    First reported by Axios, Yahoo’s layoffs will impact roughly 20% of the company’s workforce. Unlike many of the tech industry’s recent layoffs, Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone said the decision was not a result of financial issues, but is simply part of a larger restructuring.

    “The moves are meant to simplify and strengthen the good parts of the business, while sunsetting the rest,” Lanzone said.

    As part of the company’s restructuring, Yahoo will be shutting down portions of its advertising business, which has long been outclassed by both Google and Meta. As a result, while the rest of the business is quite profitable, the advertising business has increasingly been an anchor that is dragging the company down.

    “A lot of resources were going into that unified stack without a return,” Lanzone added. “This was a longstanding issue with every variation of this company … that needed to be solved eventually.”

    Lanzone says the move will be “tremendously beneficial for the profitability of Yahoo overall,” and will help the company “to go on offense” in more profitable areas.

    The move comes at a time when Yahoo is teasing a return to the search market, so it will be interesting to see if getting back to the company’s roots is an area where Lanzone plans “to go on offense.”

  • Google Won the Search Wars, but Can It Win the AI Search Wars?

    Google Won the Search Wars, but Can It Win the AI Search Wars?

    Google is the undisputed leader in the search industry but is now facing new challenges that threaten its dominance.

    According to the latest statistics, Google currently holds roughly 93% of the global search market. Its closest rival, Bing, holds a mere 3%. Yahoo comes in a little over 1%, and other search engines don’t even break single-digit percentages.

    Despite its dominance, however, Google’s search business is facing an existential threat, the likes of which it has never faced before — artificial intelligence. Just as Google’s search algorithms upended the market and killed off Alta Vista-style category searching, AI is poised to eliminate traditional search that returns pages and pages of links. Instead, AI can provide answers in a conversational manner much more akin to how human beings communicate.

    Enter ChatGPT

    While conversational AI has been a dream of many for years, OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm, offering the most advanced interpretation of the technology to date. Almost overnight, ChatGPT was being used for everything from writing letters to authoring papers to helping students with their schoolwork.

    ChatGPT was so successful that it caused something of a panic within Google as industry experts predicted the tech’s ability to put an end to traditional search. The potential wasn’t lost on Google’s rivals either, with at least a couple of them announcing plans to roll out AI-powered search.

    The Frontrunner: Microsoft

    Microsoft has quickly emerged as the biggest threat to Google’s search. In addition to being its biggest rival — albeit a very distant one — Microsoft is one of the main investors in OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT. In fact, the Redmond-based company just signed a multi-year, multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, extending a partnership that gave it exclusive access to some of the AI firm’s tech.

    Read More: Microsoft Officially Extends Its Partnership With OpenAI

    Microsoft has been rolling out the technology behind ChatGPT to its various platforms and services at a record pace, from email creation in Viva Sales to incorporating it into Azure OpenAI service.

    The biggest way Microsoft is incorporating OpenAI’s tech is in its Bing search engine. The company previewed it earlier this week, and the reviews were largely positive. Microsoft is also including a new and improved version of OpenAI’s tech, meaning it will be faster and more accurate in the answers it provides.

    Microsoft appears to be addressing the ethics of AI use as well. Business Insider’s Huileng Tan asked the new search engine to write a cover letter for a job. The AI responded that it could not do that as it would be “unethical” and “unfair to other applicants.” Bing did, however, give her general writing tips to help her and ended by wishing her “Good luck!”

    China’s Answer: Baidu

    Not one to be left out, Baidu is working on a ChatGPT-like AI of its own, named Ernie, which the company expects to launch publicly in March. Baidu is largely seen as the best chance for China to remain competitive in the search market, especially as the industry transitions to AI-driven results.

    See Also: Baidu Set to Unveil AI-Powered Search

    Despite having a home-turf advantage, Baidu may be facing a major impediment from its own government. The company’s stock took a major hit after a state media warning about the hype surrounding AI chatbots.

    This wouldn’t be the first time China has sabotaged its own tech industry, with Beijing having a complicated history of alternately promoting and then punishing its tech industry. If that behavior continues, it could significantly undermine Baidu’s ability to compete.

    The Dark Horse: Yahoo

    Once the world’s dominant search engine, Yahoo has long since ceded the crown. These days the company outsources its search to Bing, focusing on news and other digital elements.

    In late January, however, Yahoo surprised the industry by teasing a return to the search market. The company posted a job opening for a Product Manager for Search and has been dropping cryptic tweets about its plans. The company has tweeted about how it “did search before it was cool” and that it would “BRB making it cool again.”

    After years of irrelevance in the search market, it’s hard to imagine what would suddenly make Yahoo decide to make a go of it again — unless the company planned to take advantage of a game-changing shift in technology to help it play catch-up.

    Yahoo’s biggest challenge, of course, will be execution. The company has a long history of making bad decisions when it comes to search, passing up multiple opportunities to buy Google when the company was worth a small fraction of its current value.

    The Current Leader: Google

    Of course, that begs the question: What about Google? Where is the company in its AI efforts, and can it respond to this new threat effectively?

    The truth is, no one really knows. The appearance of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s quick adoption of the underlying tech sent shockwaves through the search giant. CEO Sundar Pichai issued a “code red,” reorganized labor in an effort to come up with an answer, and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin returned to assist.

    The company scrambled to unveil its Bard conversational AI, only to bungle the launch when Bard provided the wrong answer to one of the questions posed to it. That mistake, at least temporarily, wiped $100 billion from Alphabet’s value as investors dumped the stock in response.

    Read More: Google Bard Flubs Its Debut, Gives Wrong Answer in Company Ad

    From the outside looking in, it certainly appears that Google got caught off-guard and is scrambling to play catch-up and making mistakes it can’t afford to make.

    OpenAI’s founder, Sam Altman, seems to agree, likening Google to “a lethargic search monopoly.” He talks about what it would be like to be in Google’s shoes and “to think about a world where there was going to be a real challenge to the way that monetization of this works and new ad units, and maybe even a temporary downward pressure, I would not feel great about that.”

    What Happens Next

    Despite Google’s years-long dominance in the search market, Microsoft clearly has an advantage moving forward. The company is taking advantage of cutting-edge AI tech developed by the de facto leader in the space. What’s more, the company has invested billions to secure its ongoing, exclusive access to OpenAI’s innovations.

    In contrast, Google is clearly in a position it’s not used to being in: playing from behind. It is scrambling to catch up and making the kind of mistakes common to that scenario.

    Meanwhile, Baidu is similarly behind Microsoft and may face regulatory hurdles that cripple its ability to compete effectively.

    While Yahoo can’t be ruled out, the burden of proof is on it, as to whether it can compete any better in the AI Search War than it did in the original Search Wars.

    Ultimately, this will likely come down to a two-way battle between Microsoft and Google, the two companies that have the resources and expertise to drive this new era of AI-driven search forward.

    In addition to being first to the party, Microsoft has another major advantage over its rival: It is moving like a nimble startup, outmaneuvering Google. As we have written before, in instance after instance, Microsoft is moving forward in a decisive fashion while Google gets bogged down, acting like “a stodgy, risk-averse corporate entity.”

    Read More: How Microsoft Is Outmaneuvering Google

    Regardless of how much Google has dominated search to date, the future is wide open and may well be Microsoft’s to lose.

  • Google Bard Flubs Its Debut, Gives Wrong Answer in Company Ad

    Google Bard Flubs Its Debut, Gives Wrong Answer in Company Ad

    Google Bard, the company’s ChatGPT competitor, has flubbed its debut by providing the wrong answer to a question.

    Microsoft unveiled its version of an AI-powered Bing yesterday, incorporating a new and improved version of the OpenAI tech behind ChatGPT. Google is working on its own competitor, Bard, but its debut leaves a lot to be desired.

    According to Reuters, Google’s advertisement for Bard includes the following question:

    *”What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I tell my 9-year old about?”

    Unfortunately, one of Bard’s answers suggests the JWST is responsible for the first photograph of a planet outside our solar system when, in fact, the first such picture was taken in 2004 by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).

    Investors were quick to take note of the mistake, driving Alphabet’s stock down 9% after the news broke. The selloff wiped out at least $100 billion from Alphabet’s value, underscoring the high stakes surrounding AI deployment.

    Google is clearly playing catch-up to Microsoft in the adoption of AI in its search business, and it doesn’t bode well that Bard is getting such a basic question wrong right out of the gate.

  • Microsoft Announces AI-Powered Bing and Edge Web Browser

    Microsoft Announces AI-Powered Bing and Edge Web Browser

    As expected, Microsoft has taken the wraps off of the latest version of Bing, one that relies on artificial intelligence to provide answers.

    Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft has been working to incorporate the technology in its search engine in an effort to challenge Google. Thanks to its multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, Microsoft has access to the company’s tech, providing it with a major opportunity.

    The company unveiled the fruit of its labor today, integrating that AI into both Bing and its Edge web browser.

    Today, we’re launching an all new, AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser, available in preview now at Bing.com, to deliver better search, more complete answers, a new chat experience and the ability to generate content. We think of these tools as an AI copilot for the web.

    “AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all – search,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Today, we’re launching Bing and Edge powered by AI copilot and chat, to help people get more from search and the web.”

    Microsoft confirmed that the AI technology it has incorporated into Bing and Edge is the next generation of OpenAI’s research.

    We’re excited to announce the new Bing is running on a new, next-generation OpenAI large language model that is more powerful than ChatGPT and customized specifically for search. It takes key learnings and advancements from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5 – and it is even faster, more accurate and more capable.

    The company also touted its “Prometheus model,” a proprietary way of interacting with the OpenAI model for best results.

    Users can experience the AI-powered Bing today in a limited preview.

    The new Bing is available today in a limited preview on desktop, and everyone can visit Bing.com today to try sample queries and sign up for the waitlist. We’re going to scale the preview to millions in the coming weeks. A mobile experience will also be in preview soon.

  • Sundar Pichai Unveils Google’s ChatGPT Answer: Bard

    Sundar Pichai Unveils Google’s ChatGPT Answer: Bard

    Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has unveiled Bard, Google’s conversational AI and answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

    Pichai previously signaled a company “code red” in response to ChatGPT’s popularity. Executives were so concerned about ChatGPT that founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin came back to help the company come up with an answer.

    In a blog post, Pichai took the wraps off of the company’s efforts:

    It’s a really exciting time to be working on these technologies as we translate deep research and breakthroughs into products that truly help people. That’s the journey we’ve been on with large language models. Two years ago we unveiled next-generation language and conversation capabilities powered by our Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA for short).

    We’ve been working on an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, that we’re calling Bard. And today, we’re taking another step forward by opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.

    Pichai touted the many ways Bard can be used:

    Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.

    Pichai also makes clear the company’s intention to aggressively integrate Bard and similar tech into its core search:

    AI can be helpful in these moments, synthesizing insights for questions where there’s no one right answer. Soon, you’ll see AI-powered features in Search that distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web: whether that’s seeking out additional perspectives, like blogs from people who play both piano and guitar, or going deeper on a related topic, like steps to get started as a beginner. These new AI features will begin rolling out on Google Search soon.

    With Microsoft planning to unveil ChatGPT-powered Bing search and Google moving forward with Bard, the search industry is on the verge of a major evolution.

  • Google Invests $300M in AI Startup Founded by OpenAI VP

    Google Invests $300M in AI Startup Founded by OpenAI VP

    Google is continuing its quest to come up with an answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, investing in a rival founded by a former OpenAI VP.

    Google has reportedly invested $300 million in Anthropic, founded by Dario Amodei. Amodei previously worked at OpenAI, ultimately rising to VP of Research, before leaving to found Anthropic in early 2021.

    The injection of cash from Google is part of a partnership that will see Anthropic adopt Google Cloud.

    “We’re thrilled to be able to partner with Google Cloud on training and deploying useful AI systems,” said Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. “We’ve been impressed with Google Cloud’s open and flexible infrastructure. We are excited to partner with Google to scale-up our systems in the coming months.”

    “AI has evolved from academic research to become one of the biggest drivers of technological change, creating new opportunities for growth and improved services across all industries,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “Google Cloud is providing open infrastructure for the next generation of AI startups, and our partnership with Anthropic is a great example of how we’re helping users and businesses tap into the power of reliable and responsible AI.”

    As part of the deal, Anthropic will run its Claude AI model on Google Cloud. Claude’s capabilities are believed to be competitive with the much-hyped ChatGPT.

    The deal is reminiscent of Microsoft’s multibillion investment in OpenAI, albeit on a smaller scale. Microsoft and Google both see AI as a way to revolutionize search, as well as a plethora of other fields.

    With Microsoft already at work to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into Bing, it’s not surprising to see Google invest in one of OpenAI’s rivals in an effort to catch up.

  • Bing Upgrading Its Crawl System to Overcome ‘Lastmod’ Issues

    Bing Upgrading Its Crawl System to Overcome ‘Lastmod’ Issues

    Bing is undergoing a major upgrade, revamping its crawl system to overcome issues with how sites use the “lastmod” tag.

    “Lastmod”” is the tag that tells search engines when webpages on a site’s sitemap were last modified. Unfortunately, many sitemaps had the “lastmod” value set to the date when the sitemap was initially set up, not when webpages were last updated.

    According to Search Engine Journal, Bing is working to address the issue:

    To address this issue, Bing is revamping its crawl scheduling stack to better utilize the information provided by the “lastmod” tag in sitemaps.

    This will improve crawl efficiency by reducing unnecessary crawling of unchanged content and prioritizing recently updated content.

    Hopefully Bing’s revamp will help improve search results.

  • Microsoft Will Soon Incorporate a New, Improved ChatGPT in Bing

    Microsoft Will Soon Incorporate a New, Improved ChatGPT in Bing

    Microsoft is moving full speed ahead in its plans to incorporate ChatGPT in Bing, with a new and improved version rolling out in the coming weeks.

    ChatGPT has quickly become the poster child for AI development and has permeated multiple industries. Microsoft is eager to integrate the technology in its Bing search engine in the hopes that conversational AI will help it catch Google.

    According to a new report by Semafor, Microsoft’s plans will come to fruition in the coming weeks, with Bing set to incorporate a new and improved version of ChatGPT based on GTP-4.

    The outlet says that speed is one of the biggest benefits of the move to GPT-4:

    The most interesting improvement in the latest version described by sources is GPT-4’s speed. Right now, it can take a while — sometimes minutes in my experience — for ChatGPT to answer.

    Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI, with its most recent investment coming just last week. At the time of the investment, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella touted the importance of OpenAI’s research.

    “We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform,” said Nadella. “In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications.”

    The biggest beneficiary of OpenAI’s development, however, may just be Microsoft itself. Despite being a very capable search engine, Bing has never been able to make much headway against Google’s dominance. Google clearly views the possibility of a ChatGPT-enabled Bing as a threat, with the company calling in founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to help it devise an AI strategy.

    If Semafor’s report is correct, we may only have a few weeks to see if ChatGPT upends the search market as much as some believe it will.

  • Yahoo Teasing a Search Engine Return

    Yahoo Teasing a Search Engine Return

    Yahoo is teasing a return to the search engine market years after abandoning it to Google and Microsoft.

    Yahoo was once the dominant search engine on the internet, long before Google became a household name, let alone a verb. In fact, Yahoo botched two different opportunities to buy Google, one for a mere $1 million. In the time since those — and other — bad decisions, Yahoo’s search share shrunk, the company’s other prospects dimmed, and it finally outsourced its search to Microsoft Bing. After changing hands a couple of times, the company’s prospects look to be on the rise again.

    According to a job posting and various tweets, the internet company is once again ready to take search seriously. The job posting, for a Product Manager for Search, has the following description:

    As a Product Manager for Search, you will help develop our search strategy and roadmap and lead its execution. The ideal candidate will leverage strong organizational skills and deep subject matter expertise to partner with design, science, engineering, and other key cross-functional teams. You will determine what we prioritize for our customers in our search experiences and bring the vision to life. You will also lead the effort to discover and amplify content from across the vast Yahoo ecosystem to create new and innovative search experiences across surfaces and for our Search App. The role is also responsible for identifying and documenting product and business requirements and taking them from concept to production, while working with a broad set of stakeholders that include marketing, sales, legal, editorial, design, UXR, and other teams.

    In addition to the job posting, Yahoo has also been dropping hints via its Yahoo Search Twitter account.

    The company also tweeted about a Search Engine Land article discussing this news.

    If Yahoo is truly eyeing a return to the search market, this may be the best possible time. Google is facing increasing headwinds and regulatory challenges to its dominant position, and Microsoft has never been able to mount a major challenge.

    With users and lawmakers looking for alternatives and AI-based technologies poised to upend the search industry, Yahoo may finally have an opening to do what it failed to do all those years ago — make a success of search.