Articles about Bing

Microsoft isn’t wasting any time in rolling out and expanding its new AI-powered version of Bing. Yesterday, the company explained how it was beginning to relax some of the limitations it introduced after its AI went rogue and started insulting and gaslighting users, and also revealed future plans which included allowing users to choose the tone of AI chats in Bing.

Today, Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, announces that the launch of the new AI-powered Bing and Edge mobile apps, which arrive with bonus new features, such as voice input.

Continue reading →

Two weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it was introducing an enhanced version of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine and Edge browser and opened it up for testing.

Things didn’t go quite as smoothly however, and in testing it was found that the AI could go off the rails during long and intricate chats. As a result, Microsoft introduced some limits -- restricting users to five chat turns per session and a total of 50 per day. However, that limitation is set to soon be raised, and that’s not the only change that’s coming.

Continue reading →

Twitter has received a lot of attention of late, with one of the most recent controversies relating to the decision to charge for access to the Twitter API, all but getting rid of the free tier. Now Microsoft is up to much the same trick, announcing this week huge increases that are coming for developers who want to use the Bing Search APIs.

New pricing for access to Bing Search APIs kicks in at the beginning of May, and the rise is significant. There are various access tiers available, and the cost of some is due to increase tenfold.

Continue reading →

It has been difficult to avoid AI search news of late, with both Microsoft and Google announcing their offerings in the form of an AI-enhanced version of Bing, and Bard. There has been a lot of interest in the new Bing, with the waiting list growing by the day -- and now Microsoft has provided an update about how things are progressing.

If you are very eager to get to try out the AI-powered capabilities of the new Bing, Microsoft has also shared details of how you can "get ahead in the queue".

Continue reading →

ChatGPT has taken the internet by storm, becoming the fastest growing app ever. While Google has chosen to ride the AI wave with its own tool called Bard, Microsoft has taken the route one approach of integrating an AI model into its own products built with the help of ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

Today, the software giant announces its plans to reinvent search by making Microsoft Bing and Edge, your "copilot for the web."

Continue reading →

Does anybody actually use Bing Maps? I mean, I am sure some people do (right?), but I have never met any of them in my travels. In my experience, most folks use either Google Maps or Apple Maps -- I prefer the latter.

However, thanks to some new features being added to Bing Maps, maybe it is finally time to consider trying Microsoft's offering. You see, the Windows-maker has added some new things, such as a parking finder and a distance calculator to its app.

Continue reading →

A while back, Microsoft announced that it would be using the Insider Dev Channel to trial new, more experimental ideas in Windows 11. In the latest insider flight, Build 25120, we see a good example of this.

Insiders will now see a new search bar on the desktop that they can use to search the web. This won’t be something that appeals to everyone -- especially as it uses Bing to return results -- but it’s easy enough to disable.

Continue reading →

I know it has its fans, but I’ve always found Microsoft’s search engine to be a bit, well, rubbish. Partly my views on it have been formed by years of using Google. I get the results I expect to see when I type something into that, but I don’t when I use Bing.

The UK’s Prince Philip has been in hospital recently -- which isn’t a huge surprise as he is 99 years old. He underwent a heart procedure on a pre-existing condition and is currently recuperating at King Edward VII’s Hospital in London. Doctors there say he’s doing well. Bing, on the other hand, has declared him dead.

Continue reading →

With Windows 10, Microsoft is understandably keen to promote its own products, and this is something that has been noticeable in the Start menu. Search results from Bing have long-featured there, and this is not something everyone is happy with.

For a while it was possible to disable the BingSearchEnabled key in the Registry to turn this off, but this option was removed in Windows 10 version 2004 (or Windows 10 May 2020 Update). So, if you want to disable Bing, there is now a new method you have to use -- and there is the happy side effect that it also disables Start menu ads.

Continue reading →

Windows 10 has a number of things that users find annoying about it, not least that it forces you to use other Microsoft products. Type a web query into the Windows search box, or ask Cortana something, and the results you receive will come from Bing.

Microsoft has recently replaced its old Edge browser with a Chromium version, and while this is a big improvement, the software giant has forced it onto users and made it hard (but thankfully not impossible) to remove.

Continue reading →

Microsoft released a new application for Windows devices this week called Bing Wallpaper. Windows users may install the application to automatically download Bing wallpapers and have them set as the system's background image.

The application has not been released as a Microsoft Store app but as a desktop program. Users should not confuse it with the open source program Bing Wallpaper which Mike reviewed in 2017 here on BetaNews.

Continue reading →

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is wreaking havoc across the globe, infecting people on all continents with the exception of Antarctica. Whether or not the disease is serious or not seems to depend on the infected's age and other underlying medical conditions, but still, people are hoarding food and supplies as if it were the apocalypse.

So, why are people panicking? Well, there are many reasons, but a big one is misinformation. Sadly, the internet is full of fake data and mistruths, causing people to worry. Since so much misleading information is on social media, people have no idea where to turn for reliable data. Microsoft is hoping to provide truthful information with an all-new Bing Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tracker.

Continue reading →

Is Bing a bad search engine? Actually, no. Believe it or not, Microsoft's search offering is actually quite good. There's just one big problem -- it isn't Google. It is unfortunate for Bing, but there's no reason for anyone to choose the second best search engine. Bottom line, Google is great, Bing is good, and no one wants to use the latter. It is the same with the Chromium-based Edge -- it's not bad, but people want real Google Chrome rather than a bastardization.

And that's why people were upset when Microsoft announced an asinine plan to force Bing on Office 365 ProPlus users through a browser extension. Not only would this anger and annoy end users, but it would lead to huge headaches for IT departments as employees start complaining about Bing showing up over Google. The thing is, even if Bing was better than Google (which it definitely isn't), nobody likes to have things forced upon them. Google, for instance, became dominant organically because people liked its results. If Microsoft thinks it can gain Bing users by forcing it on people, then the company just hasn't been paying attention.

Continue reading →

If you’ve tried to search for something in Windows 10 this morning you’ll likely have been greeted by an empty search window.

Type something in, and you’ll get no results. Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the issue, but the problem seems to be caused by Bing’s new integration.

Continue reading →

Bing is a godawful search engine. I try to avoid it as much as possible, but on the few occasions when I do use it -- when writing about the new Chromium version of Edge for example -- I find the results it returns are rubbish. In a blind usage test I can instantly spot the difference between it and Google just by the quality -- or lack of -- of the results.

In what it describes as a bid to bring "convenient, fast web results directly to the search bar in Windows" Microsoft has baked (yet more) Bing searches into Windows 10, including a brand new visual search.

Continue reading →