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OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

reuters.com

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Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#101

Post by dimgl »

gambiting wrote: post #28

Maybe because Google is actual trash and it went from being the best search engine to being an SEO-infested desert of a search, where your query is interpreted however they want not how you want. Latest example from today - search for "micropython html parser" - 100% of results are about normal python not micropython, with the first 4 results being for generic paid programming courses. It's completely useless as a se…

I looked up "Xfinity chat with agent" on Google and was shown three different scam numbers of companies posing as Comcast...

Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#102

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

Sure, to be expected since it's a free way to use GPT-4, but I'm not sure how Microsoft are hoping to monetize this popularity. I suppose they are going to work advertising into it somehow.

I guess the Chat UI would allow for advertisements that are displayed for the duration of the chat, potentially very targeted ones (but don't want to creep users out by too closely mirroring what they are talking about), but OTOH not clear at all how much chat usage is going to be product/service related. Perhaps advertisers don't care - as long as they can put the ad in front of your eyes, they don't really care whether it's apropos of the moment or not.

Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#103

Post by echelon »

AviationAtom wrote: post #33
gambiting wrote: post #28

Maybe because Google is actual trash and it went from being the best search engine to being an SEO-infested desert of a search, where your query is interpreted however they want not how you want. Latest example from today - search for "micropython html parser" - 100% of results are about normal python not micropython, with the first 4 results being for generic paid programming courses. It's completely useless as a se…

For those old enough to remember, it's exactly the reason why Google took Yahoo's place back when.

And DogPile and Lycos and all those other funny sounding search engines.

Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#104

Post by whateveracct »

gambiting wrote: post #28

Maybe because Google is actual trash and it went from being the best search engine to being an SEO-infested desert of a search, where your query is interpreted however they want not how you want. Latest example from today - search for "micropython html parser" - 100% of results are about normal python not micropython, with the first 4 results being for generic paid programming courses. It's completely useless as a se…

I can't tell you how many times I search a somewhat niche compound term and the first thing in the results page is a list of shops in my area keyed on some word in the search.

Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#106

Post by echelon »

jjoonathan wrote: post #95
AviationAtom wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those old enough to remember, it's exactly the reason why Google took Yahoo's place back when.

The moment Google removed the yellow highlight on ads, their fate was sealed. They lived long enough to become the villain.

I'm of the opinion that it should be illegal for companies to offer the ability to buy ads for registered product names or trademarks.

Google, Amazon, and Apple all allow trademark and product name squatting. It's gross and abusive.

Generic terms? Sure. But actual trade names for products? That's extortion.

These services aren't helping in discovery if the customer already knows the name. They're merely forcing themselves into that relationship and taxing it.

You then have to buy n-many ads across m-many services just to keep you in front of your competitors that would squat you.

Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#107

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

While I agree with a bunch of other comments that are interested to see what happens in the long term, to me, all of this points to some profound organizational and cultural problems at Google. I base that statement on things I see as an external observer, from posts I've seen from current/ex-Googlers here on HN, and from some (albeit brief) conversations I've had with some of these folks.

If a decade ago you told me Microsoft would leapfrog Google in the AI race (obviously albeit through OpenAI, but I think that separate org structure was key in the first place), I would have thought you were insane. Google invented the transformer architecture just 6 years ago. I recently compared ChatGPT (on the free, 3.5 version mind you, not even the 4 version) with Bard, and it wasn't even close - ChatGPT was the "Google" to Bard's "AltaVista" circa 2000 or so.

Would be curious to hear from some Googlers on their thoughts. I'm sure, internally, a lot of it must feel like piling on from the outside, but in all honestly it really feels to me like a classic case of "big company that lost its way". I can't express enough how much admiration and amazement I had for Google that started to tarnish about 10 years ago (I think it was when the whole first page became ads for any remotely commercial search, whenever that started). I honestly hope they are able to course correct (heck, Microsoft had their decade+ of "the Ballmer years" before they turned around).

Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#108

Post by CuriouslyC »

This doesn't fit into the ChatGPT narrative, but Google's most recent search update has been BAD for me. Results are actively worse than from Bing in many cases, to the point that though I haven't switched my default yet I often navigate to Bing for many classes of query where Google is useless.

Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#109

Post by wslh »

lordnacho wrote: post #88
wslh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please Sergey and Larry return and apply your original paper! Just update it a bit.

Surely that's not going to work with all the data (aka website content) having changed markedly over the years, with SEO being a major factor?

IMHO if you open the Google database to researchers the community will find a solution nowadays.

Re: OpenAI tech gives Microsoft's Bing a boost in search battle with Google

#110

Post by xnx »

tines wrote: post #40
gambiting wrote: post #28

Maybe because Google is actual trash and it went from being the best search engine to being an SEO-infested desert of a search, where your query is interpreted however they want not how you want. Latest example from today - search for "micropython html parser" - 100% of results are about normal python not micropython, with the first 4 results being for generic paid programming courses. It's completely useless as a se…

I just performed that search in Google and the top two results are links to PyPI and Snyk packages for micropython-html.parser. The third result is a link to python.org documentation for html.parser (not micropython). Bing returns the result for PyPI and the one for the non-micropython python.org result. I don't see a big difference here (except maybe me learning about Snyk through google and not Bing?).

I also get the same result when logged-in and incognito. Others in the thread seem to get them also.
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