Microsoft’s Bing search engine is introducing an innovative ‘Deep Search’ feature, leveraging OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology. This addition aims to provide users with more detailed and accurate responses to intricate search inquiries. It’s important to note that Deep Search enhances, rather than replaces, Bing’s standard web search capabilities, offering a more in-depth exploration of the internet.
In an official blog post, Microsoft detailed how Deep Search integrates with Bing’s existing web index and ranking mechanisms, enriching them with the capabilities of GPT-4. This advanced AI interprets a user’s search query and expands it into a detailed description of what the search results should encompass.
Consider a scenario where a user is researching loyalty programs across different countries with a query like, “How do points systems work in Japan.” Deep Search would expand this query into a comprehensive outline, covering various aspects such as the functioning of different loyalty card programs in Japan, their benefits, requirements, limitations, and examples across various sectors. It would also compare these programs with other payment methods, emphasizing their rewards and participating merchants.
This expanded query interpretation allows users to express their search intent more effectively than with a simple query string. In cases of vague queries, Deep Search identifies all potential intents, formulating detailed descriptions for each, and presents these to the user for selection.
Once the expanded query is generated, Bing fetches relevant results that might not typically surface in standard searches. Deep Search does this by reconstructing the query in various forms, such as “best loyalty cards for travelers in Japan” or “redeeming loyalty cards in Japan”, and then searching for these variations.
Microsoft’s blog post highlighted that Deep Search probes much deeper than standard Bing searches, considering tens of millions of web pages to find results that address various facets of the query comprehensively and specifically, even if they don’t contain the exact keywords.
After collating web pages, Deep Search ranks them based on their relevance to the expanded query. This ranking process takes into account the match between the topic and the query, the depth of information provided, the trustworthiness of the page, and its currency and popularity.
Deep Search is an optional feature and may take up to 30 seconds to deliver results, making it more suitable for specific types of queries and users. For those seeking quicker, less detailed answers, the standard Bing search remains readily available.
