Quick Review on the New Features of Microsoft Bing and Edge! Will They Change the Way People Find Information?

AI-based tools are showing explosive growth in many aspects, affecting the way people work and study. Microsoft announced the next wave of AI innovation with Bing and Edge on 4th May, indicating the fundamental changes in the way people find information.

This article will lead you through the new features of the New Bing and Edge, providing clues on what Bing and Edge can do when handling PDF documents, as well as insights on their performance from the perspective of a PDF expert.

Microsoft Bing and Edge in Brief

Microsoft Edge is a pre-installed Internet browser in Windows 11 and Bing is the search engine used by default. It was until February that Microsoft showed impact with the release of New Bing Chat, the ChatGPT-powered and enhanced Chatbot that can understand and process natural languages. Now the upgrades on Edge and Bing are making Bing Chat more powerful.

As stated by Yusuf Mehdi, the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft, the next generation of AI-powered Bing and Edge will transform the search field by greatly expanding the vision and capabilities of the Copilot for the Web.

Combining powerful large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 with the immense search index, Bing Chat is predicted to bring current, cited, and conversational results to users, changing the way people find information, along with the new Windows Copilot.

The discussions about Bing Chat and Edge are not that optimistic, mainly worrying about the token limitations and filter rules affecting the experience while there are some excited about the new changes.

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by u/Rosellis from discussion Announcing the next wave of AI innovation with Microsoft Bing and Edge – The Official Microsoft Blog
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by u/douggieball1312 from discussion Announcing the next wave of AI innovation with Microsoft Bing and Edge – The Official Microsoft Blog
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It is undoubtedly that the New Bing and Edge is empowering search and taking it to new heights.

How to Experience the Latest Features

There are three conversation styles in the Bing chat, respectively More Creative, Balanced, and Precise.

The creative one generates longer and more imaginative answers, while the precise one focuses on shorter and more factual answers. For most situations, the ‘More Balanced’ style is the appropriate choice.

To enjoy new features for the full experience, the “More Creative” option needs to be selected at the beginning of the chat, which is hard to be noticed.

The “More Creative” style will produce verbose, topic-jumping answers, which might not that easy to control the logical flow of the chat.

New Features of Microsoft Bing and Edge

According to the official release announcement in Microsoft Blog and the videos on YouTube, Bing, and Edge are obtaining new key features as follows:

Search images and videos in answers

New Bing Chat sets itself apart from other chat tools by providing visual answers like charts, graphs, and videos, making it convenient for users to understand concepts and improve work/study efficiency.

Create Images by Description

The integrated Bing Image Creator allows users to request AI-generated images, showcasing AI creativity.

However, as of the time I wrote this article, the Bing Image Creator hasn’t been available in all the regions.

Finish Actions and Invoke Plug-ins

As showcased in the demonstration video by Microsoft, new Microsoft Bing and Edge are able to interact with other services. For example, play videos from Apple TV, and find restaurants on OpenTable.

Although the demonstration video showcased this fancy operation, I didn’t make it successful in my test.

Such a fall from expectation to a real situation brought me disappointment and doubt about the full performance of Bing Chat.

Summarize and Chat with PDFs

The combination of Bing and Edge brings convenience when reading PDFs. It is now able to ask Bing to summarize the content and find information from the PDF.

Performance of AI on PDFs

Although it is able to ask questions about PDFs directly to Microsoft Bing Chat (as with many AI summarize tools), it will search results on the Internet even if there are answers in the PDF already. So the answers might not be so accurate since they come from different resources on the Internet.

In situations of chat with PDFs, PDFgear could provide prompt and accurate answers with referenced pages listed. PDFgear also includes a full suite of editing tools, enabling users to annotate and edit PDFs seamlessly. In our earlier comparison of the top PDF chatbots, what Bing Chat has to offer is somewhat surprising.

Space for Improvements

While promising, New Bing Chat has its limitations.

It requires the “More Creative” conversation style for the full experience, which is hard to be noticed. Also, the “More Creative” style will produce verbose, topic-jumping answers.

Additionally, chat history disappears when switching between tabs in Edge, possibly a bug in either Edge or New Bing Chat.

Summary of New Features in Microsoft Bing and Edge

Aspects	Bing Chat in Edge with New Features
Accessibility	Must select “More Creative” conversation style. It‘s not that easy to experience all features in Bing Chat without guides from Microsoft or tech sites.
Search by Chat	Just ask what you need and Bing Chat will give you the search results. It can be filtered further by giving more limitations in the chat.
Create Image	Interesting and imaginative. As of the time I wrote this article, the Bing Image Creator hasn’t been available in all the regions.
Search Images & Videos	Supported! This is the feature that advanced other chat tools, and it’s quite efficient.
PDF	Able to chat but the answers might not be so accurate since the answer might come from the Internet rather than PDF. In situations of chat with PDFs, PDFgear could provide prompt and accurate answers with referenced pages listed. PDFgear also includes a full suite of editing tools, enabling users to annotate and edit PDFs seamlessly.
Summarize Content on Web Page	Supported. However, most summaries are not of good quality since they repeat almost all the details without screening and sorting in the “More Creative” style. I think this could be fixed in version upgrading.
Quality of Answers	Way better than before. It could answer the question in detail and provide divergent opinions for idea extension. The support for more source types improved the efficiency and convenience greatly.

How to Write Precise Prompts

When using a GPT-based chat tool, crafting clear prompts helps get accurate answers more quickly. Here are some tips for writing straightforward prompts for GPT:

1. Add qualifiers to define boundaries and guide the GPT on what to do and not to do.

2. Provide examples to help GPT follow the template for its response.

3. Assign a role to AI to modify answers with a specific style. For example, like a primary teacher who can explain stories to children aged 7 or 8.

4. Use punctuation like “”” to separate commands from the text needed to be processed.

5. Request answers in a specific format, like a table, to help extract information from lengthy articles.

Get Better Tools and Prompts for Different Tasks

In conclusion, Edge with New Bing Chat offers a versatile and powerful experience for interacting with various content types. However, when chatting with PDFs or handling PDF documents, PDFgear with ChatGPT integration is recommended for optimal results. To enhance your AI-powered chat tool interactions, apply the suggestions on writing effective prompts.

If you found this article helpful, don’t hesitate to follow my account for more insights on AI and chat tools in the future. Enjoy your chatting experience!