On February 7, 2023, Microsoft launched an all-new, AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser that aims to deliver better search, more complete answers, a new chat experience, and the ability to generate content. This is the reinvention of the tools billions of people use every day, the search engine, and the browser.
In a statement by Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, he said, "AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all – search. Today, we’re launching Bing and Edge powered by AI copilot and chat, to help people get more from search and the web."
The new Bing and Edge have brought together search, browsing, and chat into one unified experience that you can invoke from anywhere on the web. Here are the features that the new Bing and Edge offer:
Better Search: The new Bing offers an improved version of the familiar search experience. It provides more relevant results for simple things like sports scores, stock prices, and weather, along with a new sidebar that shows more comprehensive answers if you want them.
Complete Answers: Bing reviews results from across the web to find and summarize the answer you’re looking for. For example, you can get detailed instructions for how to substitute eggs for another ingredient in a cake you are baking right in that moment, without scrolling through multiple results.
A New Chat Experience: For more complex searches, the new Bing offers new, interactive chat. The chat experience empowers you to refine your search until you get the complete answer you are looking for by asking for more details, clarity, and ideas – with links available so you can immediately act on your decisions.
A Creative Spark: The new Bing can generate the content to help you. It can help you write an email, create a 5-day itinerary for a dream vacation to Hawaii, with links to book your travel and accommodations, prep for a job interview, or create a quiz for trivia night. The new Bing also cites all its sources, so you’re able to see links to the web content it references.
New Microsoft Edge Experience: Microsoft has updated the Edge browser with new AI capabilities and a new look. Two new functionalities have also been added - Chat and Compose. With the Edge Sidebar, you can ask for a summary of a lengthy financial report to get the key takeaways, and then use the chat function to ask for a comparison to a competing company’s financials and automatically put it in a table. You can also ask Edge to help you compose content, such as a LinkedIn post, by giving it a few prompts to get you started. After that, you can ask it to help you update the tone, format, and length of the post. Edge can understand the web page you’re on and adapts accordingly.
With the launch of the new Bing and Edge, Microsoft is hoping to provide a more streamlined and efficient search and browsing experience that is more useful to users. By bringing together search, browsing, and chat into one unified experience, Microsoft is creating an AI-powered copilot for the web that can help people get more from search and the web.
