With the Reddit collaboration, users searching for specific content will find it more easily. For example, searching Bing for communities or pages will let Bing provide results higher up. AI fits into this equation as Microsoft leverages intelligent search abilities to natural language processing to match Reddit content to search terms. There are three steps to the integration. Typing a subreddit name on the search engine will result in a live snapchat of the subreddit’s top threads. This will be displayed in the search results pane with links to individual pages. Bing will also deliver AMA questions and answers, and celebrities who have done AMA’s. The AMA celebrities will be showed with a search card, shown when using a person’s name. Lastly, Bing will surface answers to direct search queries from Reddit, using subreddits like AskReddit. If you have spent time on Reddit, you will know searching the website is often a hassle. With Bing integration, users will finally have an easy way to find specific content on the network. “All this amazing content is sitting there. As long as it is just on Reddit, we know we’re missing out on a much broader audience. We know there are people who are searching for this content, but now we’re providing them a world-class product to find it,” Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said today at Microsoft’s AI-focused Bing event in San Francisco. “We’re just getting used to talking to the robot and expecting a good answer. The challenge here is that there’s a lot of nuance when you’re asking these kind of open-ended questions. Reddit is the largest data set in the English-speaking world of vetted, nuanced responses.”
More AI Announcements for Bing
At its AI event in San Francisco today, Microsoft announced more features for Bing. Using pre-approved news sources, searches will now offer multiple perspectives. This allows users to see different sides to an issue or story. Microsoft says it is an effort to cut down on fake news and misinformation. Artificial intelligence is also being used to allow Bing to host a conversational search function. By using the lessons learned from its natural language chatbot, Microsoft has given the search engine the power to auto-complete in a more intuitive way.
