Yesterday I was at the Microsoft office with dozens of other media folks (lots of famous YouTubers also) for Microsoft to showcase its next evolution of Bing, the co-pilot for the web powered by the upgraded ChatGPT.

I should start by saying the leaks were accurate representation of this but the demos were far more impressive. Microsoft posted its own blog post over here and my Search Engine Land coverage is here.

I will say, this is far more impressive and thought out than what Google rushed out with Bard on Monday. But Satya Nadella did say Microsoft has been working on this for a while, not just the AI and language models but also how to build it into search as an assistant, as an “intelligent agent” as he put it.

Microsoft showed how you can not only get wicked smart answers, that you’d expect from ChatGPT but also how the user experience in search works smoothly with it. The right side panel that shows you not just the answers, but also the attribution and other ways to expand on those answers. You can also toggle from search to your chat assistant, and the chat feature will just pick up from search and visa versa. It just works together, at least in the demo.

I will have full access to it soon but you can also request access at bing.com/new.

Here is the home page as I see it:

Here is a screenshot Bing provided of the chat:

I live tweeted the event, where I tried to capture as much of the demo as possible, here are those tweets:

I see a bus load of famous YouTubers and reporters – like real famous.

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

I am in the back of the bus – was sitting across from iJustine:

Heading to Microsoft’s campus to learn what they’re planning, possibly, with ChatGPT. #Microsoft pic.twitter.com/7cUdA35869

— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) February 7, 2023

They funneled us into a breakfast area:

Timelapse (5 minute) of the Microsoft Media event – where Bing search goes AI… pic.twitter.com/z0DkMfaCd4

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

Then we went to the keynote room and Sam from OpenAI was sitting right in front of me:

Look who I see at this Microsoft event – it’s @sama pic.twitter.com/a6hRVjdnqT

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

Then Satya took the stage:

He is talking about AI and how its incredibly exciting times and how this can solve so many problems.

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

Satya saw what OpenAI developed and he was mind blown #Microsoft – now they need to scale this technology pic.twitter.com/UZAdDbCTIq

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

This AI technology will reshape every software category @satyanadella said #microsoft pic.twitter.com/Z3DkuQ1hnF

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

Then Yusuf Mehdi took the stage:

40% of queries result in someone clicking back and most searches are three keywords or less…

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

he explains navigational, informational and other searches people do today. 50,000 people’s searches go unanswered, which is why it is time for a new approach with search.

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

Bing is using a new ChatGPT designed for search

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

also, new core search index improvements and they applied AI to its core and it resulted in a huge improvement in relevancy

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

New Bing homepage to search with more words. pic.twitter.com/4vc6wXxjYz

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

And it shows more real time using the Bing index pic.twitter.com/fo1gIykQs6

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

It won’t be perfect so there are feedback links

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

New chat button in search to go from search to chat pic.twitter.com/1Y90o461nw

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

Microsoft is also bringing this AI copilot to Edge browser by integrating Bing in a new cool way with chat and to summarize and compare based on what is in the Bing index pic.twitter.com/rPhw6X27Qt

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

And it shows more real time using the Bing index pic.twitter.com/fo1gIykQs6

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

It won’t be perfect so there are feedback links

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

New chat button in search to go from search to chat pic.twitter.com/1Y90o461nw

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

Microsoft is also bringing this AI copilot to Edge browser by integrating Bing in a new cool way with chat and to summarize and compare based on what is in the Bing index pic.twitter.com/rPhw6X27Qt

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

That’s it I think pic.twitter.com/HXL4hLnrOf

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

More on technicals on these Bing upgrades – it’s pretty technical pic.twitter.com/C1pyswdeCB

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

I’ll add, this all seems light-years ahead of what Google showed us yesterday… At least from an integration and UX standpoint

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

it will expand to more people over time…

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

New Bing waitlist page at https://t.co/KWfVn2gd7S pic.twitter.com/abNP30skHJ

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

Microsoft won’t talk about the cost difference to run ChatGPT versus normal search…

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

@nfarley10 asked about Ads and @yusuf_i_mehdi said ads will be there, its in the screenshots from the presentation

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

More from Nicole on that over here.

and now I have early full access to the new Bing – what a big search box you have! pic.twitter.com/eTU4w1VWMU

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023

There is a lot there but check out Techmeme – there is so much coverage of this and it is deserved. Also, Nicole did a test drive of the new Bing – her write up is here.

Finally, created this short vlog style video of my experience with this in person media event:

Forum discussion at Twitter & WebmasterWorld.

Google may be testing a new layout for videos it displays in the Google Search results. Google is testing a new format for how the videos show in the Google Search results.

This new format shows a larger video in the listings, as opposed to a smaller thumbnail image with more details. This was spotted by Khushal Bherwani on Twitter who shared the new and old screenshots.

New video format:

Old video format:

Google has been testing and displaying larger video thumbnails for some time, as an FYI.

I am not sure which one I like more, I would have to pick I guess the smaller thumbnail?

Forum discussion at Twitter.

I am currently in Seattle and headed to the Microsoft Campus in Redmond for an in-person press event. I decided to go, assuming it would be related to ChatGPT and Bing but Microsoft would not tell me what it was about, nor would Microsoft let us say we are going to the event. Then yesterday at 2pm, when the news broke about Google Bard (story will be here), Microsoft said we can talk about the event.

So the news is out there that there is a event, see Techmeme. The email Microsoft sent says, “Microsoft has some exciting news coming in February and we’d like to invite you to an in-person experience at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond.”

“We can’t share a lot more at this stage, but you won’t want to miss it. This invitation is for you only, but if you’re unable to attend please let us know and we’ll see if we can consider another of your teammates,” Microsoft added.

Then after the Google news came out, Microsoft sent an email saying, “In light of recent announcements, you may now acknowledge your participation in tomorrow’s briefing in Redmond, leveraging the language in the briefing invitation.”

So yea, this press event seems to be about the Bing ChatGPT solution. I am very much looking forward to seeing what Microsoft Bing has to show here and I’ll be sharing the news here, on Search Engine Land and likely will be tweeting a ton @rustybrick. So make sure to follow me on Twitter to see the latest from Bing on this news.

And we have this photo of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft with Sam Altman of OpenAI together last night:

hello from redmond! excited for the event tomorrow pic.twitter.com/b7TUr0ti42

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 6, 2023

I am expecting this to look a lot like the Bing ChatGPT interface leaks we covered earlier. Here are those screenshots:

Here is the home page screenshot that widens and enlarges the search box and says “Ask me anything”:

Here is his screenshot of the results, the answers being returned:

And here is the GIF he made of this:

Brain buzzing with all the search news and announcements this week! SEOs cannot sleep. What a time to be alive! The future is bright 🚀

— Fabrice Canel (@facan) February 7, 2023

More to come soon.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.