Microsoft Bing Chat said it is now better at responding to news questions and also reduced unnecessary duplicate searches, end conversation triggers, and returning no response to queries.
News answers. Bing wrote, “We’ve taken steps to help Bing give better answers if you’re asking questions about news. Bing said we should try to ask Bing Chart “What are today’s top breaking news stories?” So I did and it gives me these stories about Theodore McCarrick, a top news item from a few days ago; a six-year-old being shot, which is a more recent news story; Clemson being a top pick for Casey Poe, also recent news and some financial advice from CNBC from 30 minutes ago.
Here is a screenshot:
When you compare it to Google Bard, they both tell very different stories. I like how Bard breaks it down but I also prefer the top news box that Bing Chat provides:
Other Bing Chat improvements. Other items Bing mentioned as updates to Bing Chat include updates to its :
- Formatting of math formulas so it is easier to read
- Reduction in how often Bing Chat triggers end-of-conversation statements
- Reduction in triggered unnecessary duplicative searches
- Minimizing errors that led to Bing chat returning no response to queries
Why we care. News publishers may be starting to notice some traffic from Bing Chat. If not, if Bing Chat grows, it may drive more and more traffic over time, as Bign Chat grows in popularity.
Plus, watching these rapid improvements to AI search and AI chat features is really exciting.
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About the author
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.