Microsoft has launched a massive overhaul of its Bing search engine to keep pace with Google. The engine will now incorporate AI-generated answers and traditional search results directly on the search page. The feature is currently only available to a small percentage of user queries, possibly to avoid an embarrassment similar to what Google experienced with its own Gemini and Search combination experiment, AI Overviews.
Bing’s implementation combines its search results with large and small language models (LLMs and SLMs). This allows the search engine to understand the search query, review “millions of sources of information”, dynamically match content, and generate results in an AI-generated layout to answer your query to satisfaction, hopefully.
The new feature also includes a visual overhaul to properly distribute information across the user’s screen. It also goes beyond just providing AI summaries of the search results. Bing can now dissect queries into individual parts and answer all different aspects of your question.
As you’d probably guess, that’ll be a lot of information to show on a single page, especially considering you may not need most of it. Regardless, Bing will also show you its sources beneath each section, so at least you can easily cross-check the information.
Microsoft is also apparently considering any potential impact on search traffic. According to Redmond, “early data indicates that this experience maintains the number of clicks to websites and supports a healthy web ecosystem.” The entire generative search experience is built around retaining traditional search results and increasing the number of clickable links.
As expected, Microsoft is playing it safe with the update, claiming that it’s slowly rolling out the update and will take its time to collect feedback, test and learn, and “work to create a great experience” before making the feature broadly available.
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