Bing Introduces New 'Deep Search' Tool Powered by GPT-4

You know when you search for something on an engine and the results don’t match up to what you’re looking for? Now you have to tweak your wording and keep testing until you get the right results.

That’s the problem Bing is hoping to solve with Deep Search, a new optional search tool that focuses on intent and provides a more expansive search results page.

How does Deep Search work?

This week, Microsoft announced the launch of Deep Search.

It works by using GPT-4, the newest and greatest LLM, to understand users’ intent when they search and match them with the right results. More specifically, results that are more expansive and may not directly relate to the user’s keyword.

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For instance, let’s get a bit meta.

Say you look up “how to use AI at work” on Bing. You’ll likely see results about the various tasks you can automate with AI.

However, you might also be wondering about how to use AI safely and what skills you might need in this AI era. Deep Search would pool these web pages and include them in your search results, taking a more holistic approach to your query.

Now here’s the downside: Microsoft says it could take up to 30 seconds to generate results with Deep Search. Compared to the 0.1 seconds it usually takes to see results, this could be a huge turn off for some users.

How will Deep Search impact SEO?

Deep Search is one of many recent AI tools appearing on search engines.

As of July 2023, Bing takes up roughly 9% of the desktop global search market, compared to Google’s 83%.

Similar to the additions Google’s making to its engine with Search Generative Experience (SGE) Deep Search could have a huge impact on the organic traffic publishers drive.That’s because the results from Deep Search could compete with organic results.

Microsoft said the ranking factors for Deep Search are:

• Topic match
• Content detail
• Trustworthiness
• Freshness
• Popularity

The good news is that the tool will be optional, which means it will only impact a percentage of searches.

In addition, Microsoft says Deep Search isn’t for every single query or user, adding that it will only appear for keywords that require a “deeper and richer exploration of the web.”

However, there’s not enough information at this point to get a full picture of how big this tool’s impact with be.

When will Deep Search be available to the public?

For now, Deep Search is in testing and is only available to randomly selected Bing users.

Microsoft has not provided a timeline for when the tool will be widely released but it will likely take a few weeks to months.