Bing’s modern AI project pushes the usual list of search results to the side

Bing’s modern search experience puts AI-generated answers front and center while pushing conventional search results to the sidelines. new system that is being implemented For a petite number of queries, it populates the search results page with AI-generated summaries that address various aspects of the question.

I know this feature isn’t fully implemented yet, but as a Bing and Edge user (we exist!) I hope it’s available for a fee or has an off switch. The fact that search descriptions are cut off after two lines is particularly annoying and would make it harder for me to see the first page of actual search results.

But Bing’s modern layout goes beyond general summaries. For a query like “Spaghetti Westerns,” you’ll see a description of the genre’s history and origins after scrolling past the initial answer, along with related movies, a chart of the best and most influential films, and even details about the music. That’s a lot of information on one page, some of which you might not even need. Microsoft lists its sources below each section, while all the links you’d normally click on appear in a slim column on the right side of the screen.

As Microsoft notes, the modern experience combines Bing search with language models substantial and petite. “It understands your search query, looks at millions of sources of information, dynamically matches content, and generates search results in a new AI-generated layout to more effectively fulfill the user’s query intent,” the company says.

Microsoft is also weighing the potential impact on search traffic. It says early data suggests it “maintains clicks across sites and supports a healthy web ecosystem.”