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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

Are people here actually trying this out or is it vaporware as of yet? I ask because this seems ambiguous:

The new Bing is live today “for desktop limited preview,” but it appears users are only able to “ask” one of a number of preset queries and receive the same results each time. There is also a waitlist to sign up for full access in the future.

If it's just an announcement of an announcement*, we should downweight this thread and wait for one that has meat on its bones.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

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Get this, if you use Edge, with bing as search by default and join the waitlist, then another button appears "get access faster" or something, which then takes you to a page to make sure you've defaulted everything to Microsoft, and you've scanned a QR code to download a Bing mobile app.

I can't be bothered _all_ of that. Mainly the addition of a new mobile app.

Microsoft is using this announcement to get people to install "Bing Wallpaper" and a mobile app.

That doesn't inspire confidence.

Just waiting on Microsoft to tell me about hot singles in my area, and the trifecta will be complete

Well, Google's getting close; what about "hot shingles in your area"?

https://sunroof.withgoogle.com/

I heard that in a Sean Connery accent.

- Hey Google, do you expect me to talk?

- No Mr. Bond, I expect you to buy!

Given how ChatGPT was trained to avoid talking about anything remotely related to sex at all costs, it's gonna be awkward.

What is ai good at besides porn?

Writing articles about porn

I have to use a windows PC sometimes and if I accidentally move my mouse to the bottom left of the screen a bunch of Bing News articles pop out telling me about 7 different people dying. I don’t know how to turn it off.

Right click on the taskbar -> Settings -> Widgets toggle to OFF

Thank you

Youtube has been nagging me with ads about hot single moms in my area and I never ever used Youtube or Google or any browser where I was logged in with any personal account to search for anything "spicy" that would lead them to assume I'm into something like that.

I always used a separate 'clean' browser without any accounts for those kinds of searches which I guess was probably not enough as Google simply matched my IP and figured it out. Probably should have used a VPN.

Fingerprinting targets your machine and maybe your gestures(?) If google trusts your IP more than your fingerprint, then VPN may help you to get away with it.

Edge does this already.

Bing Wallpaper is the only good thing that Microsoft has done in years! [1]

Sources:

1.) Me (being a bit hyperbolic, I'll grant)

"Join the waiting list" is what turned me off. I'm already trying hard enough to use Windows 11 without a Microsoft account (local only) so that I'm definitely not signing into Bing on Edge. Next step they'll require me to link the OS to it.

I recently setup a new laptop for someone with windows 11 and was surprised how easy it was to get around the online account stuff. The wifi was on when I hit the account setup part, I didnt want to make an account for someone else (name an email and password for someone else, what a mess, no thanks), so I powered the router down. The account screen didnt seem to give any options at all to work around it and make a local, but after the router was off, I got in without an online account, I dont even think the local had a password given, I could get in by just clicking a "Sign In" button.

It's interesting how this has now become the norm where users accept such treatment without question and propose "quick workarounds" so they can continue using abusive software.

"Easy" is clicking a "Local account" button. Turning off the bloody router is the opposite of easy.

> surprised how easy it was to get around the online account stuff.

thats not easy, a dark pattern, and not something most people will be able to figure out

To me this reads as being surprised that you are merely abused and not turned into a slave.

Honestly, the "if you use edge" piece is what is disappointing to me. Did they also have to make a browser play with this stuff? I prefer Firefox.

I doubt this is what the long term plan is. Apple forces you to jump through hoops to beta test stuff. But obviously this is in a much more Microsoft way.

I'll reserve judgement until I see how the public version is done.

You can use Bing in Firefox, I use both DDG and Google in FF. I could add one for Bing.

Looks like they will be supporting Chrome at some point, based on the announce event reports, one of the spokespeople said "Chrome has to implement some features" before they can support it, maybe they'll make a Chrome extension to fill the gap and get it working on there.

I smell silly OKRs! Why don’t they just release a cool thing and let it rip? That is surely better. Let Edge die if it is gonna die.

The anti-trust laws have to stop Microsoft before it's too late. People complain about Google and Facebook, but the big evil today is Microsoft.

Always has been, look at Project Blackbird, the QDOS and Mosaic deals, Halloween documents, Microsoft Pluton, etc.

I think they're all big evils.

I'd download a mobile app in a heartbeat if that's the cost to use ChatGPT integrated with my searches.

It's funny because they're the underdog in search still but yet these are the tactics they're already pulling out of their hat, and like that all good faith is gone

Yeah, it's telling me to join the waitlist when I'm trying to enter something in the chat instead of clicking on their examples.

Apple does it right by timing the PR to coincide close to when the general public can act on the new knowledge (order a new i-device).

I still cannot order a Macbook Pro M2 in Taiwan yet :(

I was able to get on by downloading the Canary version of Edge, which then prompted me to try the "new Bing".

It doesn't appear real. It looks like the new interface but dumps the query into old bing. You only have access to the couple prerendered conversations.

Is it possible that they divert 95% of traffic to old Bing and only slowly open the floodgates to the new backend?

Does anyone get actual answers aside from the "Try it" examples? If not then this is already a bad move in terms of PR and makes Microsoft seem inconsistent and weird.

when did "vaporware" change meaning from "something that has been talked about repeatedly, for a long time, but never ended up releasing" to simply "something that is not out right now"? I've seen this word misused similarly a lot recently.

The meaning of "vaporware" has evolved over time. It originally referred to software or hardware products that were announced or promised to be released, but never actually materialized or were significantly delayed. However, as technology and the pace of innovation have accelerated, the definition of vaporware has broadened to encompass any product or service that is promised or rumored, but has not yet been released. As a result, the word is now sometimes used more broadly to refer to things that are not currently available, even if they are in development and likely to be released in the future.

-- Courtesy of ChatGPT

I thought it's a released product that doesn't implement any process, i.e. a gimmick.

man that sucks. now it's a useless word, synonymous with "unreleased".

remember the Phantom? classic vaporware. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Entertainment

I've always thought that until it is actually released, and especially if there is slightly misleading information that it is there but YOU can't try it (but really nobody can but that is downplayed), than it is indistinguishable from long-term vaporware. Both Google's and Bing's announcements currently fall into this.

so like back in the day when gmail or Inbox were invite-only, you would've called those "vaporware" if you couldn't get access yourself, immediately? I just don't see the use of using this term for imminent releases.

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