Microsoft Bing Introduces Deep Search

Microsoft recently announced Deep Search, an optional AI tool that allows for “a deeper and richer exploration of the web.” Currently in an experimental phase, this feature is available to a small, random group of users worldwide.

Based on Bing’s existing web index and ranking system and powered by GPT-4, OpenAI’s generative AI Large Language Model (LLM), Deep Search can create text from any input. According to the tech giant, when a user can’t get relevant results with traditional search queries consisting of a few keywords or a short sentence and their questions require more than a simple answer, they should use Deep Search.

Users can start searching the usual way and opt for Deep Search to take over. Using GPT-4, Deep Search exhausts all the possible search intents behind the short query and generates more comprehensive descriptions for further research.

To ensure it’s moving in the right direction, Deep Search offers a disambiguation pane where the user can choose from specific search intents. Deep Search then generates an expanded search description and uses a range of querying techniques to suggest relevant results. According to Microsoft, Deep Search “finds results that are more informative and specific than the ones that rank higher in normal search.”

Deep Search ranks pages depending on how well they match the expanded search description, considering factors like how well the topic correlates, whether it has an “appropriate level of detail,” how fresh and popular the page is, and how credible the source is.

Due to the greater complexity of the Deep Search process, users might wait up to 30 seconds for results. It might seem like a long period given that normal Bing searches load in less than a second, but Microsoft promises “it can be worth the wait for more specific or comprehensive answers.”

It’s still unclear to what extent Deep Search will impact the organic traffic publishers rely on, but it’s likely to steal clicks from organic results. Concerns over how the new AI features across search will impact organic results are growing, especially because search engine leader Google is also embracing AI in its search experience to preserve its dominance.