by Florian Callens
published on Monday May 6, 2024 to 20:19 •
2 min read
OpenAI, the company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, appears to be on the verge of launching its own search engine.
The rumor mill has been running for a while, but last weekend more concrete information seemed to emerge. Y Combinator’s Hacker News community noted that OpenAI has registered the domain name “search.chatgpt.com.” Currently this URL does not lead to anything, but that could change soon. Tech influencer https://twitter.com/nonmayorpete/status/1786016972758528420 reported on Twitter that the search engine’s launch is scheduled for Thursday, May 9.
What can we expect from the ChatGPT search engine?
Details about how the search engine works are still scarce, but there are some rumors. The search engine would like to be a combination of a traditional search engine, as we know it from Google, with additional options thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).
In addition to links to relevant websites, OpenAI’s search engine would also formulate a concise answer to the search question thanks to AI. This would make the search engine a kind of cross between Google and AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
A major threat to Google?
The arrival of a ChatGPT search engine could pose a major threat to Google. With a 90% market share, Google dominates the search engine market, followed by Microsoft’s Bing. The introduction of a strong competitor could drive down prices and increase innovation.
