Last week, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Search – a new way to search the web using AI within a chatbot interface. Thanks to the integration of Microsoft Bing real-time data and other interesting sources, this could challenge traditional search engines.
How does ChatGPT search work?
ChatGPT Search is a helpful tool that makes finding information easier with a little help from AI. It is connected to the web in real time and uses the Bing index and other sources to display current results with source links.
It’s easy to use. Simply click on the globe icon to activate the web search function. For example, ask a question about current events and ChatGPT will determine whether more information is needed. If necessary, this information is collected in the background.
It displays the generated results and the sources used in the chat window. The sidebar adds more context and contains links. These source links allow you to quickly review the information, making it easier to verify the trustworthiness of the results. They also offer a starting point for further discussion of the topic.
OpenAI works with media organizations worldwide to ensure ChatGPT Search delivers high-quality, relevant answers. These include Associated Press, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Financial Times, Hearst, Le Monde, News Corp, Prisa (El País), Reuters, The Atlantic, Time, etc.
Of course, since it’s a chatbot, you can discuss the search results and ask it to clarify or expand on sections. Images and everything relevant to the search are also displayed. Things like weather, stocks, maps and sports have their own graphical interface to clearly communicate results.
Together, these make Search a useful and versatile tool for many topics and tasks, allowing you to access it without leaving your chat window.
ChatGPT Search vs. Google’s AI
Google’s AI summaries appear at the top of search results and provide summaries from the 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 competitor to ChatGPT.
ChatGPT Search is part of the ChatGPT interface and enables conversational interaction. It uses the Bing index and other sources to provide real-time, sourced answers. Users can ask follow-up questions, making the chat experience very dynamic.
Integration with Microsoft Bing
Microsoft Bing plays a central role in how ChatGPT search works. Although it uses various sources, Bing is currently a major driving force. It is a huge source of data that helps AI provide timely and accurate information. Thanks to the Bing index, ChatGPT provides users with the latest details on various topics. If your website is not in the Bing index, it will not appear in ChatGPT results. Therefore, having 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 considered Microsoft’s search engine to be 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 plays a big role in how AI can help uncover and display information, which could help improve its position among the other search engines. Bing and ChatGPT Search want to change the way we find and use information online.
What does this mean for SEO?
Of course, incredible technology is irrelevant if no one uses it. So it remains to be seen whether OpenAI’s new search feature will reach a mass audience. Still, the introduction of ChatGPT Search should get you thinking about your AI and SEO strategy. With Microsoft’s search engine being one of the most important sources of data, it’s more important than ever that your content is 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 the indexing status of your content on Bing. Bing Webmaster Tools is an excellent tool for identifying gaps in indexing. Fixing these issues will make your content visible and discoverable to users on the Bing and ChatGPT platforms.
Paying more attention to Microsoft Bing in your SEO plan isn’t just about increasing visibility. It also helps your website prepare for other forms of AI search technology. As ChatGPT search becomes more widespread, it becomes even more important that your content reaches your target audience, wherever they are.
New OpenAI crawler
OpenAI also gives us new ways to control the visibility of our websites and content. ChatGPT Search comes with a new one caterpillar — in addition to the existing one GPTBot – this helps bring content to the surface. OAI-SearchBot focuses on search tasks. It links to websites and displays them in search results for OpenAI search functions. In order for your website to appear in search results, allow this OAI-SearchBot in your robots.txt file. If you want to block it:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /
Keep in mind that this crawler does not crawl content to train OpenAI’s generative AI models; It just serves to bring it to the surface.
Future developments
OpenAI plans to expand ChatGPT search to make it more versatile and user-friendly. The aim is to include functions for shopping and travel inquiries. The goal is to provide users with recommendations and information as part of their ChatGPT interactions.
The company is also working on integrating these features into Advanced Voice Mode and Canvas to enable voice-activated searches and shared tasks. The combination of all these features makes it a very interactive and flexible tool.
ChatGPT search could become a popular tool for accessing information online. The search experience is already very exciting and offers the opportunity to deliver context-rich answers in real time. Given the speed at which things move, we can expect more precise answers and interesting search features as the system learns and improves.
We won’t just see improvements in technology. As OpenAI continues to add new partners, the content available through ChatGPT Search will become increasingly rich and comprehensive. These collaborations will provide high quality information on a wide range of topics.
Conclusion on ChatGPT search
We are entering a new era 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 quick and efficient way to access information. We’ll see how the tool develops, but it could redefine our approach to search and SEO. Therefore, we will find new ways and strategies to help our readers discover our content.
Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked at a top web design magazine, where he developed a strong understanding of how to create great content.
