Reuters reported on Friday that Microsoft has begun talks with ad agencies about a plan to monetize an updated version of its Bing search engine powered by smart artificial intelligence, a decision the tech giant is trying to win. From Google Search, your competitor in the search engine market.
Citing an unnamed advertising executive, the agency said Microsoft showed a sample of the new Bing at a meeting with a major advertising agency this week and plans to allow paid links in answers to questions such as "search results."
Generative AI capable of generating human-like responses to open questions or requests has become a hot topic recently.
Last week, Google and Microsoft announced the launch of intelligent chatbots based on generative AI. Products, which are not yet released by companies, will be able to aggregate material from the web to get the best answer to complex inquiries.
Early search results and conversations with Bing and Bard (Google's intelligent chatbot) were not positive, as Google lost an estimated $100 billion in market value the day it released a promotional video for Bard that contained incorrect information.
Microsoft expects the new Bing to succeed in attracting more users and advertisers, especially since ads in the Bing chat interface are likely to outweigh ads on pages.
The company has begun testing ads in an early version of the new Bing, which is currently only available to a limited number of users, according to Reuters, which is responsible for the ads and saw them this week.
In addition, according to the agency's sources, Microsoft said it would take traditional search advertising, where brands typically pay to have their websites and products appear in commercial keyword search engine searches, and include it with the new Bing Generated in response.
The source also said that Microsoft plans to introduce another ad format in the chatbot, targeting advertisers in specific segments. For example, hotel ads appear when users of a new search engine ask, "What are the best hotels in Mexico?".
It is believed that integrating ads with the new Bing engine, which can be extended to fill the top of search pages, can help prevent ads from being pushed to the bottom of pages within chatbots.
It is believed that the new Bing could be a profitable opportunity for Microsoft as millions of people are queuing up to access it. In a presentation to investors and the media last week, the company said each one percentage point increase in search advertising market share could bring the company $2 billion in advertising revenue.
It should be noted that the Microsoft Edge web browser, which uses the Bing search engine, holds no more than 3.5% of the browser market globally, according to market research firm StatCounter.