YouSaid · the spoken record

Yusuf Mehdi

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56
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2023-03-02
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2023-03-02
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Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Yeah, it's a great question. And I'd say there's two things just to also frame that. So we launched really kind of four capabilities in one product. The ability to search, the ability to get answers, the ability to chat, and the ability to generate content with AI. The search piece landed well. So people were actually, for the most part, people were very happy. 70% plus love the search and the answers.”

    2023-03-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Is Bing Back? with Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “And then the last bucket of search, and these are all about one third, one third, one third, is deep research, shopping. I want to plan a trip. And so today, what's happened is half of these searches are kind of going on unanswered. And that was the opportunity that we're trying to tap into with the new being.”

    2023-03-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Is Bing Back? with Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “Correct. Yeah, and if I can, maybe I'll take a step back on it because there's a lot happened between there. So search over the last two decades has fundamentally remained the same. Our use of it has changed. And so people now are using it to do different things. So if you take the 10 billion search queries that will happen today, BIR count, only about half will really get the answer they want. And that's because search, if you were to bucket it, there's three types of searches. There's what I call navigation search where you're looking for a website, like you need to renew your driver's license, so you need the DMV. Search works great for that. Then there's a second bucket of searches that we'll call informational. And here today's search works so-so. For simple things like you need a stock price, you need the weather forecast, you want the last night's sports course. Search does a good job. But if you ask it anything remotely interesting and hard like, hey, I'm going to Ikea. Well, the couch I'm about to pick up fit in the back of my car. Search doesn't do a good job on that.”

    2023-03-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Is Bing Back? with Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “Yeah, there's a couple things. Certainly, search is one of these businesses where scale matters. And so if you have more reach, you get better data, your algorithms get better. If you have more reach, you get more advertisers and your advertising rate goes up. So that's been a tough one. And then Google has taken that and then gotten exclusive relationships like Apple on the iPhone. So they're the default search on the iPhone. We did come with some new ideas. As you probably recall, when we launched Bing, we tried to fashion it as a decision engine. So moving beyond search to help you make decisions and take actions. And it was actually a great idea. In fact, Satya and I were talking about the other day that we were probably ahead of our time. We had the right idea, but the technology wasn't ready to deliver on it. And so even though we did good answers for you, we couldn't fire them consistently and at scale. The technology wasn't there to get that level of capability, which is what's exciting now about the new Bing.”

    2023-03-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Is Bing Back? with Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “Yeah, but to your point, we've not had the broad success, and that's really been because of Google's sort of overdominant reach and the fact that they got there early with all of the advertisers. And so they have that economic increasing scales of return. Now, we have been making share over the last two years, as you mentioned, and we've been growing slowly. But we're a small fraction of the search market”

    2023-03-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Is Bing Back? with Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “Yeah, you hit it pretty well, Kara. And yeah, I was there at your code conference. In fact, I remember standing vividly between Steve Palmer and Walt Mossberg. Trying to do a live demo, and that was highwire act. You know, Bing, I think I would say, as you summarize, we made some good progress. Today we have actually a great business with Bing. We have a great search engine that has not only helped our online advertising business, but it's helped things like Azure because of all the cloud work and the infrastructure and all the technology behind it. So it's been a, I'd say, a very successful product for Microsoft in that regard. We make money on it today. It's a profitable business. You make money on it.”

    2023-03-02 · On with Kara Swisher · Is Bing Back? with Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT