I am on the waitlist so I can only judge for now by the review
Looks to me like Microsoft is making a big effort to go after not only Google Search but also Google Chrome
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I got to try the new Bing AI-based Search today.
Just an early impression but my thoughts are:
(1) Much more detailed answers than ChatGPT - plus the automatic references for everything it reports is an imense advantage
(2) Main downside is that it only works when you use the Edge browser. Very shrewd marketing for Microsoft
Since Chrome extensions do run in Edge maybe I will give it a try
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I used Edge for a while and liked it. But Microsoft has added a lot of unnecessary features and, IMO, just junked it up.
The main issue is what other software will NOT work with Edge i.e. will Google’s upcoming AI search require Chrome?
It’s a bit frustrated to be restricted to a given browser. That said, I understand why Microsoft is doing this. For one thing their upside to regain market share and thus advertising revenue from Chrome is huge. And second - the cost to run AI servers at scale has to be astronomical so they need to make revenue from this somehow.
Right now AI is flavor of the month and Microsoft, and Google, will want to show off their new technology in their own browsers. Eventually I would expect everything will work with, at least, all chrome browsers. Probably even Safari.
Here is an interesting video on the competition between Microsoft and Google as they battle it out for the future of search.
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Perhaps. But Bing AI search is integrated with the Edge browser in a very deep way; the experience would be very different in a generic browser.
Thus restricting Bing AI to Edge not only is a great economic move for Microsoft, but also it can be supported as necessary from a UI perspective. Very shrewd.
You may be right. But Satya Nadella transformed Microsoft by taking their products to their customers. MS released Microsoft Office for the iPad before they released it for Windows. Today’s MS doesn’t care if you run Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone or iPad. They just want you to use their software and services.
I’m sure Microsoft or Google will want to bring this technology to iPhones and iPads. But if it remains tied to their specific browsers that’s not likely to happen because Apple requires all browsers on mobile to use the webkit engine.
So what will happen? Will they try to adapt it to Safari after it goes mainstream? Will they wait to see if some governmental agency forces Apple to allow other non-webkit browsers in the App Store? Will Apple just drop the webkit requirement?
What if the massive AI infrastructure allows Microsoft, Google, and others to replace our computers and smartphones, etc. with inexpensive terminals? The digital world is changing, again.
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This type of drastic change (an automobile rather than a better horse) is more likely than anything my poor imagination could guess at.
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If something like that happened it would just be history repeating itself, to me. I’ve watched the PC disrupt the mainframe and the iPhone disrupt personal computing. Now “the cloud” is not only emptying corporate data centers it has birthed a new form of computing.
Change can be a good thing. I wouldn’t need a case if it only cost $129 to replace my Apple iTerminal. 