It’s a Tuesday, February 7, 2023, that could well mark the history of the web. Indeed, on that day, Microsoft announced a complete overhaul of its alternative search engine to Google: Bing. Its new version integrates a chatbot developed by OpenAI, named ChatGPT.
Microsoft and its $10 billion investment in OpenAI intend to challenge Google’s supremacy in the world of search engines. A battle that begins today, in the words of Satya Nadella, the software giant’s CEO.
An intelligent assistant at the service of Internet users
The main innovation of the new version of Bing is undoubtedly the integration of Prometheus, Microsoft’s intellectual property, based on ChatGPT. The chatbot will be present on Bing, but also on the Edge browser to help users in their online searches.
Thanks to this AI, users can ask questions that the robot is able to answer, or take advantage of multiple features such as translation, annotation or summary of PDF documents.
The enthusiasm of the users
Microsoft probably didn’t expect such a huge response. In fact, in the United States, the Bing app has risen to the twelfth place of the most downloaded free apps, from around 160ᵉ place before last week. As for Edge, it came in third in the utilities section. France also experienced a real coup de feu. The French platform sees Bing become the sixth most popular application! There has been a drastic increase in downloads – tenfold – since the launch of the new version.
Very strong competition from Google and Bard
This is enough to worry Google, whose domination of the search engine market is under threat. Especially since Big G also has new weapons up its sleeve: the chatbot Bard, which was launched in tests recently. However, the Californian giant won’t have time to celebrate if Microsoft succeeds in its gamble and Open AI’s final product turns out to be better than its own.
With this new AI battle looming, only one thing is certain: we could well see a great reset of the web in the next few years. It remains to be seen who will win: Google and its voice commands, Microsoft and its chatbot, or any other player we don’t know about yet.
