Speaker 1 0:34

Last episode . Do you remember what we talked about last episode ? No , I'm not surprised . We talked about the new search engine from ChatGPT and how people were saying , oh , it's like this is going to kill Google , this is it Right ? And we you and I talked about well , how do you suppose ChatGPT is searching the web , right ? And what that might mean for Google and Google's future , right ? And I sort of suggested that , yeah , chatgpt probably uses Google to search the web , so it's not going to kill Google .

Speaker 1 1:10

And people wrote in to let me know that ChatGPT uses Bing , and that is correct . They do use Bing . So I'm going to go a little deeper into that today . I think that's a good idea . So they do use Bing , and I believe Microsoft was a substantial and is a substantial investor in OpenAI , the company that created ChatGPT . So it makes sense for ChatGPT to have a close partnership with and use Bing . Bing is owned by Microsoft . Okay , wait , I don't understand why it makes sense . It makes sense because Microsoft owns Bing . Bing is Microsoft's search engine . Microsoft invested heavily in ChatGPT . Oh , search engine . Microsoft invested heavily in chat GPT . So part of that arrangement , I'm sure , is you use our search results . Now , that is true , I am sure they do use Bing .

Speaker 1 2:08

What I am saying and this is not based I do not work for either of these companies . I cannot say definitively exactly what's happening , but based on my experience and knowing what these companies do and things they say , and then seeing what they actually do , this is based on my experience , seeing that and we're going to game this out a couple of different ways I could be imagine that I'm just totally wrong about this . We'll imagine that . You know , every so often there's a yellow moon . Yeah , do you remember that ? You remember that one time I was wrong about something , that one time I was wrong about that one thing ? No , that was the only time . No , you're usually always right . I'm glad I was recording that . You can listen to that . We'll talk after . I'm going to have an easy button that plays that clip . Yeah , anyway , back to my story . What was my story ? Yeah , anyway , back to my story . What was my story ? Your story was what somebody says .

Speaker 1 3:01

So , absolutely so , let's say they do use Bing . They don't say that they exclusively use Bing . Obviously , they're never going to say that they get search results from Google . They can't do that . They'd get sued immediately . So , again , based on my experience , I bet they are also using Google . But let's say they're not . Let's say they are only using we don't know , we'll never know , right , we don't know . Let's say they are only using Bing , yeah .

Speaker 1 3:32

So let me back up a handful of years to a little experiment that Google did . Okay , okay , so Google , they hard-coded a specific search . What that means is if you did a search for , and they just put together a string of letters that are so long that nobody would ever search for it , okay . And if they set it up so that if somebody did do that search , only a single website would come up and it would have nothing to do with the search . So there is no way that this would ever make sense . If you saw this result , then they waited a few months and they went to Bing and they did that search and guess what came up ? That website , that website . So that was a very obvious signal . It was proof . It was like there was . It could never happen that Bing was feeding up Google results .

Speaker 1 4:21

Now , what happened as a result of that ? I don't know exactly . I assume there was some sort of lawsuit , but what the consensus was at the time is that , more than anything . It's just really embarrassing for Bing because they were saying we don't use search results . We have our own , and they probably do have their own , but everybody supplements things with Google . That's one of my points . Okay , let's say for the sake of argument that ChatGPT is only using Bing and Bing is no longer stealing information from Google search results . Google is like totally out of the picture . Their information is not being used at all .

Speaker 1 5:01

Then my second point from last episode was Okay , google's going to adapt , right . Right , I do remember you saying that . I will be the probably not the first to admit , but I will definitely agree that if you go to ChatGPT and try to have a conversation and do a search for things , it's better than the . Is that Google is answering for me ? Does this all the time ? I never have a Zoom call when this doesn't happen . Google , how's my phone Finishing the podcast for us ? Okay , what was I talking about ? You were talking about ? Oh , right , I admit . Yes , chat GPT is better than the similar generative search results that you get from Google . Google is doing the same thing . If you notice at the top , when you do a search of the search results page , they're going to give their own AI-generated result .

Speaker 1 5:57

Yes , I've noticed that it's not that great right now , but what is the difference ? And I've asked people who specialize in it . I've asked one guy who taught this stuff at MIT and I ran into him in Truro walking the dogs Are you serious ? Yes , I am . What is ? I asked him . This was like a year ago . What is it that ChatGPT is doing so differently from Google and everybody else trying to do this ? And he said and also , I've spoken with people at Google and they say the same thing . They just have a headstart . They're not doing anything that different . They just they're ahead of everybody . Right , they're the first . So you know , they absolutely have a head start , a noticeable head start on Google and everybody else .

Speaker 1 6:42

My point is Google will adapt . Yeah , when people say Google is dead or SEO is dead or et cetera , et cetera , the thing about SEO is that it adapts , it changes . The only constant in SEO is that it's always changing . So as long as people are out there searching for things , looking for things on the internet , seo is going to adapt and adjust to whatever that means . Right , that makes sense . So I have a little bonus today . Oh well , hello , bonus .

Speaker 1 7:10

So I went to chat GPT this morning . Yes , and I said dear chat GPT , how do you choose which results from the internet to display in your responses ? How about that ? Because , so , let's say , excuse me , so remember , let's say did you hear the podcast ? Let's say that chatPT is using Bing . They're still , they have access to the same internet that Google does and they're getting all their information ultimately from the same places .

Speaker 1 7:39

How is it that they are going to choose how to answer people ? Right , because everybody's going to want to know this , because SEO is going to move in this sort of direction , whether it's ChatGPT or whether it's the AI version of Google . You want to get into that response . Right , because there's no longer going to be , eventually , a search results page like Google , where there are like 10 different websites that you see and you've got to choose one . It's just going to summarize everything for you . That's what chat GPT does . That's what Google does . Chatgpt is doing it better , but the question for businesses is how to be one of those websites that ChatGPT chooses .

Speaker 1 8:18

Right , and so that was the reason I asked and , and it described the criteria that it uses . Okay , and it's all the same stuff as SEO . It literally talked about keywords . It talked about relevancy . It talked about trustworthiness . It talked about all the same stuff that you would do if you want to get to the top of Google . All the exact same stuff . Not all of it , but the stuff that it mentioned was the same Predominantly . So the rules right now are the same Right now . Right now . Now , talk about a cliffhanger . The rules right now are the same Right now . Right now . Now , talk about a cliffhanger . I want to get into this a little more deeply , about what ChatGPT said in response to my question how do you get your website into ChatGPT results ? I'm going to have to tackle that in the next episode , so topical .