How scared are Google and Microsoft right now of OpenAI & #ChatGPT?

To get an idea, just look at this embarrassing screenshot of the NewBing waiting list signup process, which is full of errors and screams panic... 🤦‍♂️

Something tells me that I won't use the new #Bing more often than the old one (spoiler: never). Will Google release something more intriguing? I'm not sure...

I've been experimenting with You.com for a while now, and I've noticed that I rarely have queries for a search engine that I want to ask in the form of a conversation. That still seems more appealing as a concept than as a product. AskJeeves anyone?

Put two or three words into the search bar. Hit return. Done. YouChat is superior to ChatGPT, especially because you can check the sources. However, for most queries, the good old SERP will do - even though it is now clogged with spam on Google. 🤬

Google and Microsoft, no doubt, are aware of this. That's probably why they didn't do much when ChatGPT was released in November - nothing new, GPT-3 is obsolete, and we have the same technology. Who cares?

What was grossly underestimated? The impact of a new user interface and the buzz that builds when everyone suddenly has access to technology that was previously only available to insiders.

What do we learn from this?

1. Many companies continue to undervalue the importance of user interfaces as a success factor for their product.

2. Google and Microsoft are still unable to communicate. So is Meta But they are just slower.

Neither of these are particularly new findings. But it is clear evidence that little progress is being made in these areas. At least that's the lesson Apple is likely to take away from all this fuss.