Bing and its sibling ‘Edge’ have been coming third in a one-horse race for a long time now. Suddenly the emergence of the AI equivalent of a plutonium battery powered race whip in the form of ChatGPT has delivered a proper kick up the arse.
The world has changed, pivoted on a dime as they say, as a result.
No longer will Google search be the only game in town, and Chrome the default browser housed on 98% of devices. The new race has begun with a wider field, and no doubt some roughies hiding in the wings.
Microsoft announced 2 weeks ago that it has extended OpenAI’s models across their Azure services, widely used by developers, so who knows what might spring out of that. Last week Microsoft confirmed ChatGPT is being incorporated into Bing and Edge.
Google have the most to lose here, so have scrambled to announce they intend to incorporate their version of OpenAI’s google-killer ‘Bard’ into search making it more ‘ChatGPT like’. It is just a pity the horse stumbled at the first hurdle by failing to answer a simple question, leading to a share price nose-dive into the turf.
This is a must win race for Google, as 80% of their revenue comes from advertising. With hindsight, they have bet the farm on the one horse, never a great strategy in a volatile environment.
It is going to be interesting!!
