ChatGPT Search Gets an Upgrade
OpenAI is upgrading ChatGPT’s web search tool to deliver a smoother online shopping experience. Starting Monday, users can now browse product recommendations, view images and reviews, and follow direct links to purchase items.
The feature is live globally for GPT-4o users across Pro, Plus, Free, and even logged-out sessions.
Personalized Results Through Natural Language
Users can ask detailed, natural language questions to find highly tailored results. For now, OpenAI is focusing on categories like fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics.
Unlike traditional search engines, ChatGPT aims to deliver cleaner, more relevant shopping results without ad clutter. OpenAI emphasized that it is not inserting ads into the new shopping experience.
Instead, results are pulled from structured third-party metadata, including pricing, descriptions, and reviews.
A Strategic Move Against Google
The move highlights OpenAI’s growing ambitions to challenge Google, especially in online shopping — a crucial pillar of Google’s business.
By avoiding paid placements and keeping results organic, OpenAI hopes to offer a fresher, more useful shopping experience, addressing frustrations around Google’s declining search quality.
In a statement to TechCrunch, OpenAI revealed that ChatGPT handled over a billion web searches last week alone.
Memory Features Coming Soon
For Pro and Plus users, OpenAI plans to integrate ChatGPT’s memory feature into shopping. This will allow the chatbot to personalize recommendations based on past conversations.
However, memory-based personalization will not roll out in the EU, U.K., Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein due to regulatory concerns.
Trending Searches and WhatsApp Access
Another new addition: ChatGPT search will now suggest trending searches as users type — similar to Google’s autocomplete.
Also, ChatGPT’s web search capabilities are now available on WhatsApp, making it even easier to get real-time answers and recommendations on the go.
Building on Past Experiments
Previously, OpenAI tested shopping through its Operator platform, an AI agent that took longer to deliver results. The new ChatGPT shopping search promises much faster, more direct results.
While OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has expressed a general dislike for ads, he recently hinted that “tasteful” affiliate fees might come into play in the future.
For now, OpenAI insists that today’s update is ad-free — focused purely on giving users a better way to shop online through AI.
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