Published on: April 28, 2025 / update from: April 28, 2025 - Author: Konrad Wolfenstein
The functionality of the Microsoft Bing search engine: crawling and AI at a glance - currently 16.71% market share, tendency rising - Image: Xpert.digital
Market share and AI use: This is how Bing is against Google
16.71% desktop market content: Bing as an alternative to Google
The Bing search engine from Microsoft has established itself as a growing alternative to Google in the desktop area in 2009 and has reached a market share of 16.71 percent in Germany. In recent years, Microsoft Bing has developed a lot through extensive AI integration. This article provides a detailed insight into the technical basics and functionality of Bing, with a special focus on crawling processes and AI use.
In the overall market (all devices), the proportion of Bing is significantly lower and is around 4 to 5 percent.
More about it here:
The basic functioning of the bing search engine
Like other search engines, Bing runs through three core phases to process web content and deliver relevant search results: crawling, indexing and ranking. These processes form the foundation of the search engine and are crucial for the quality of the search results.
The history of Bing goes back to the former search engines MSN and Live Search, which, however, did not achieve the desired success. With the support of former Yahoo employees, Microsoft finally developed Bing as a new search engine. An important advantage of Bing is the integration into the Microsoft ecosystem and partnerships: The voice assistant Alexa from Amazon uses Bing, as well as car manufacturers such as BMW and Nissan in their navigation systems.
The Bingbot: The heart of the crawling process
The crawler of the Bing search engine-known as Bingbot-is responsible for discovering, searching and capturing websites. This automated Bot continuously searches the Internet and records HTML documents and websites in the Bing Index.
The functionality of the Bingbot can be clearly presented as a tree structure: the bot begins with the root directory of a website (the root) and works upwards through the various branches (pages, left, article). He stores all the links and content that he finds on his way. Bingbot discovers around 70 billion URLs every day, which he has never seen before - an impressive performance.
The crawling process is controlled by a special crawl manager that evaluates various signals:
- Connection error
- Download time
- Content size
- Status codes
- More technical parameters
Each website receives a so-called “crawl budget”, which indicates how intensively a website can be searched without impairing its performance. This budget is defined at different levels-for subdomains, domains, servers and IP addresses.
Indexing and ranking algorithms
After crawling, the data collected is included in the Bing Index and ordered according to relevance and quality. The subsequent ranking phase determines which websites appear in the search results in which order.
Machine learning as the core of the ranking
It is noteworthy that about 90% or more of the core ranking algorithm from Bing are based on machine learning. The main algorithm for the ranking is Lambdamart-a Boosted-Tree version of Lambdarank, which in turn is based on ranket. This algorithm family has proven to be extremely successful; An ensemble from Lambdamart rankers won the Yahoo! Learning to Rank Challenge.
For the evaluation of websites, Bing takes several factors into account:
- Relevance: keyword density, meta-tags and content structure
- Quality: depth of content, topicality and examination for double content
- User experience: loading speed, mobile-responsives and intuitive navigation
- Authority and trust: Backlinks of trustworthy websites
Suitable for:
The revolutionary AI mission in Bing
In recent years, Microsoft has revolutionized search technology by integrating artificial intelligence. The redesign of Bing with AI functions marks significant progress in the development of search engines.
Prometheus: The connection between Bing and GPT
After considerable investments of over one billion US dollars in Openaai, Microsoft uses their GPT models for Bing. The heart of this integration is a proprietary technology called “Prometheus”, which combines the comprehensive bing index with the creative skills of the most advanced GPT models from Openaai.
Prometheus enables the following functions:
- Query interpretation: conversion of complex, spoken inquiries into efficient search formats
- Use of the Bing Index: Access to current information in real time
- Integration of the bing ranking: Determination of relevant content for the answer
- Direct display of bing answers: weather, sports results, news and advertising
- Source information: Provision of quotations and links to the sources - in contrast to the standard behavior of Chatgpt
The AI-based Bing Chat (Copilot)
Microsoft describes the new AI function as a “copilot for the web”. Instead of only answering on search queries with links, Bing Chat reacts in natural everyday language - with corresponding sources. For example, the AI can provide recipes directly instead of just displaying links to recipe websites.
The dialogue capacity is particularly noteworthy:
- Users can start with a simple question and gradually refine them
- The chat history allows access to previous inquiries at any time
- Bing chat reacts to feedback and can adapt answers accordingly
There are also visual answer options with diagrams, graphics and videos that make the search engine even more informative.
Suitable for:
Bing and Openaai: An exciting transformation in the Internet search- the search engine of tomorrow?
The Microsoft Bing search engine has developed from a simple Google competitor to an innovative AI-based platform. The crawling process by the Bingbot still forms the backbone of the search engine by continuously searching the web and indexing content. The use of machine learning for ranking-especially through the Lambdamart algorithm-ensures relevant search results.
However, Bing has lifted the revolutionary integration of OpenAis GPT models through Prometheus technology to a new level. This combination of traditional search engine technology and modern AI opens up new opportunities for information search on the Internet and could fundamentally change the way we interact with search engines.
While Google continues to dominate the search engine market, Microsoft is increasingly positioning itself with Bing as an innovative alternative, which sets new standards, especially in the field of AI-supported search.
Suitable for:
Your global marketing and business development partner
☑️ Our business language is English or German
☑️ NEW: Correspondence in your national language!
Konrad Wolfenstein
I would be happy to serve you and my team as a personal advisor.
You can contact me by filling out the contact form or simply call me on +49 89 89 674 804 (Munich) . My email address is: wolfenstein ∂ xpert.digital
I'm looking forward to our joint project.