Microsoft made a big splash last week by unveiling a ChatGPT-enhanced Bing. Its search site has long been the butt of jokes, with Google dominating the space, but people took notice of this new flavor of web search from Microsoft, which can do research for you as well as create stories, itineraries, menus, emails, and more.
The new features are the result of a collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI, the creator of the controversial ChatGPT service, which may result in some real competition for Google. The feature is not available to all web users yet, but you can sign up for the waiting list to test it, as shown below. But the list is quite long: Microsoft corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi recently tweeted that millions have joined the waitlist and outlined the rollout process.
How to Try the New ChatGPT-Enhanced Bing
For now, you'll need to join a waitlist to try out the Microsoft Bing ChatGPT integration. Head to this website, log in with your Microsoft account, and you're on the list. After that you'll see an option to Get Faster Access.
Microsoft has a few suggestions for how best to move up the list. Here are the steps (which the utility download on the Faster Access page automates) that Microsoft says will get you the new features faster:
- Make Edge your default browser (it runs on Windows obviously, but also macOS and Linux).
- Make Bing your default search engine.
- Make MSN your default homepage.
- Pin Bing.com to the Taskbar.
- Add Microsoft-recommended sites to Favorites.
- Create a desktop shortcut for Microsoft Edge.
- Download the Bing app for your mobile phone.
MacOS users, of course, can’t get those Windows defaults, but when I tried the Fast Access link on a MacBook, it took me to the Bing wallpaper, so that may speed up access. And in Firefox it adds the Bing extension to that alternative browser. Apple users can also install the mobile app on their iPhone.
Getting the New Bing in the Edge Web Browser
If you’ve paid attention to the announcements from Microsoft, you know that the new AI chat and text-generation capabilities are also coming to the Edge web browser, which is available for Linux and macOS as well as for Windows. Remember, the new AI features will be built into Edge as well as available on the Bing website and mobile app.
As with Windows, there’s an Edge Insider program that gives users a taste of new features coming to future versions of the software. I thought installing the preview build would get me the new AI search, but my waiting list status was the same in all three preview builds of the browser.
So it turns out there’s no shortcut to avoid the waiting list. But if you follow the steps that Microsoft suggests, you should get the new search tools faster.
Even More Options
For more background, read about the other advantages of Bing and the Edge web browser. Plus, read about alternative search engines and alternative web browsers.