Last week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search — a new way to search the web using AI inside a chatbot interface. Thanks to the integration of Microsoft Bing real-time data and other interesting sources, this could challenge traditional search engines.
ChatGPT Search is a helpful tool that makes it easier to find information with a little help from AI. It is connected to the web in real time and uses Bing’s index and other sources to show up-to-date results with source links.
Check out this video to get a quick run-through of this AI-powered tool:
How does it work?
It’s simple to use. Just click the globe icon to activate the web search feature. Ask a question about current events, for example, and ChatGPT will determine if it needs more information. If necessary, it will gather that information in the background.
It displays the generated results and the sources used in the chat window. The sidebar adds more context and includes links. These source links let you quickly verify the information, which makes it easier to check the trustworthiness of the results. They also provide a starting point for exploring the topic further.
ChatGPT shows the latest news on the 2024 COP29 conference, with proper links and more search results
OpenAI works with media organizations worldwide to make sure that ChatGPT Search delivers high-quality, relevant answers. These include the Associated Press, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Financial Times, Hearst, Le Monde, News Corp, Prisa (El País), Reuters, The Atlantic, Time, etc.
Of course, because it is a chatbot, you can discuss the search results and ask it to clarify or expand on sections. It will also show images and whatever is relevant to the search. Things like weather, stocks, maps, and sports have their own graphic interface to communicate the results clearly.
Together, these make Search a useful and versatile tool for many topics and tasks, allowing you to access them without leaving your chat window.
ChatGPT Search vs. Google’s AI
Google’s AI Overviews appear at the top of search results, providing summaries from its extensive web index. Users can click on links to access more detailed web pages. For a more chat-like experience, Gemini is Google’s main ChatGPT competitor.
ChatGPT Search is part of the ChatGPT interface and allows for conversational interaction. It uses Bing’s index and other sources to provide real-time answers with source attributions. Users can ask follow-up questions, so the chat experience becomes very dynamic.
ChatGPT Search shows links directly near the answer but also in the sidebar
Integration with Microsoft Bing
Microsoft Bing is central to how ChatGPT Search works. While it uses various sources, Bing is currently a major driving force. It is a huge data source that helps the AI deliver current and accurate information. Thanks to Bing’s index, ChatGPT gives users the latest details on various topics. If your site isn’t in Bing’s index, it won’t appear in ChatGPT’s results. So, getting your content indexed by Bing is crucial if you want it to be visible.
Bing’s index gives ChatGPT Search access to a wide range of information. Whether it’s news, weather, or financial data, Bing has an impressive database of topics. And while we’ve always seen the Microsoft search engine as less relevant than Google, this new collaboration puts it back in the spotlight.
Microsoft Bing doesn’t just play a technical role in the background. It has a big hand in how AI can help uncover and show information, which could help improve its position amongst the other search engines. Bing and ChatGPT Search want to change how we find and use information online.
Ask ChatGPT Search about recent developments in stocks, and you’ll get great insights
What does this mean for SEO?
Of course, incredible technology is irrelevant if no one uses it. So, whether or not OpenAI’s new search feature will reach a mass audience remains to be seen. Still, the introduction of ChatGPT Search should make you think about your AI and SEO strategy. With Microsoft’s search engine as one of its main data sources, it’s more important than ever to get your content indexed by Bing.
Simply put, your SEO work should include Bing alongside other major search engines. Optimizing for Bing increases the chances of your content appearing in ChatGPT Search.
You should regularly check your content’s indexing status on Bing. Bing Webmaster Tools is an excellent tool for identifying gaps in indexing. Fixing these issues helps make your content visible and findable by users across both Bing and ChatGPT platforms.
Paying more attention to Microsoft Bing in your SEO plan isn’t just about increasing visibility. It also helps your site prepare for other forms of AI search technology. As ChatGPT Search becomes more widely used, it will become even more important that your content reaches its intended audience — wherever it may be.
As it’s a chatbot, you can simply ask questions if you are looking for specific topics or answers
New OpenAI crawler
OpenAI also gives us new options to control the visibility of our sites and content. ChatGPT Search comes with a new crawler — in addition to the existing GPTBot — that helps surface content show. OAI-SearchBot focuses on search tasks. It links to and displays websites in search results for the OpenAI search features. To have your site appear in search results, allow OAI-SearchBot in your robots.txt file. If you want to block it:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Disallow: /
Remember that this crawler does not crawl content to train OpenAI’s generative AI models; it’s just for surfacing it.
Future developments
OpenAI plans to expand ChatGPT Search, making it more versatile and user-friendly. They aim to include features for shopping and travel queries. The goal is to give users recommendations and information within their ChatGPT interactions.
The company is also working on integrating these features with Advanced Voice Mode and Canvas, which would enable voice-activated searches and collaborative tasks. Combining all of these features makes it a very interactive, flexible tool.
ChatGPT Search could become a beloved tool for accessing information online. The search experience is already very exciting, with the ability to deliver real-time, context-rich answers. With the speed at which things move, we can expect more precise responses and interesting search features as the system learns and improves.
We’ll see improvements in more than just technology. If OpenAI keeps adding new partners, the content available through ChatGPT Search will continue to become richer and more comprehensive. These collaborations will supply high-quality information covering a broad range of topics.
ChatGPT Search has specific interfaces for specific pieces of news, like the weather
Conclusion on ChatGPT Search
We’re heading into a new age with ChatGPT Search. This tool offers a very solid implementation of AI-powered search technology. Thanks to Microsoft Bing and other data sources from publishing partners, it offers a fast and efficient way to access information. We’ll see how the tool’s development goes, but it might redefine our search and SEO approach. As such, we’ll find new opportunities and strategies to help our readers uncover our content.
Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.
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2 Responses to What is ChatGPT Search (and how does it use Bing data)?
Michael • 1 month ago
I tried asking ChatGPT about a subject which I knew the answers to.
ChatGPT gave me very bad info.
It accepted my changes, apologising each time.
I can’t trust ChatGPT to give correct information.
Carolyn Shelby • 4 weeks ago
A lot of the information you get out of ChatGPT/SearchGPT is extremely dependent on the questions you ask it. So, if you believe that the information you’re getting back is bad because it is out of date, then you should phrase your question in a way that let’s the system know it should do a search for current information. Like instead of searching for “pluto”, you would ask “what is the most recent classification for pluto? Is it still a planet?” — if you use qualifiers like “most recent” or “latest” or “newest” or give it a time frame for acceptable data, it will think “oh, I need to go search the web for this” and it will return newer data that that which lives within the LLM training data. Also, remember that much of the result depends on how many datapoints you provide in your prompt or query. The most specific you are in terms of the question you’re trying to answer, the better the results will be. There will always be certain topics or queries that return less than desirable information, and that is true for Google queries, too.
I tried asking ChatGPT about a subject which I knew the answers to.
ChatGPT gave me very bad info.
It accepted my changes, apologising each time.
I can’t trust ChatGPT to give correct information.
A lot of the information you get out of ChatGPT/SearchGPT is extremely dependent on the questions you ask it. So, if you believe that the information you’re getting back is bad because it is out of date, then you should phrase your question in a way that let’s the system know it should do a search for current information. Like instead of searching for “pluto”, you would ask “what is the most recent classification for pluto? Is it still a planet?” — if you use qualifiers like “most recent” or “latest” or “newest” or give it a time frame for acceptable data, it will think “oh, I need to go search the web for this” and it will return newer data that that which lives within the LLM training data. Also, remember that much of the result depends on how many datapoints you provide in your prompt or query. The most specific you are in terms of the question you’re trying to answer, the better the results will be. There will always be certain topics or queries that return less than desirable information, and that is true for Google queries, too.