A couple of weeks ago, I reported that Bing was beta testing a new AI performance report within Bing Webmaster Tools. These reports are now available as a public preview for all to see.

Plus, Bing Webmaster Tools has a whole new slick design. I actually like it a lot.

Microsoft's Krishna Madhavan, Meenaz Merchant, Fabrice Canel, and Saral Nigam announced:

We are happy to introduce AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools, a new set of insights that shows how publisher content appears across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations. For the first time, you can understand how often your content is cited in generative answers, with clear visibility into which URLs are referenced and how citation activity changes over time.

I was not able to show you what that report looked like, until now, because now anyone can see it at bing.com/webmasters/aiperformance. Here is a screenshot:

Here is what you see:

• Total Citations: Shows the total number of citations that are displayed as sources in AI-generated answers during the selected time frame. This highlights how often your content is referenced by AI systems, without indicating placement or presentation within a specific answer.
• Average Cited Pages: Shows the average number of unique pages from your site that are displayed as sources in AI-generated answers per day over the selected time range. Because the data is aggregated across supported AI surfaces, average cited pages reflect overall citation patterns and does not indicate ranking, authority, or the role of any page within an individual answer.
• Grounding queries: Shows the key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers. The data shown represents a sample of overall citation activity. We will continue to refine this metric as additional data is processed.
• Page-level citation activity: Shows citation counts for specific URLs from your site, making it easy to see which individual pages are most often referenced across AI-generated answers during the selected date range. This reflects how often pages are cited, not page importance, ranking, or placement.
• Visibility trends over time: The timeline shows how citation activity for your site changes over time across supported AI experiences, making it easier to spot trends at a glance.

And nope, no click data, as I said a couple of weeks ago.

The grounding queries is confusing folks - but those do not seem to be the actual queries users are searching but what Bing uses to "retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers." So Copilot takes your long query and then breaks it down into shorter ones, it is probably that. But it also seems like that metric is stil being refined by Bing.

Plus, this data is not in the API yet. Fabrice Canel from Microsoft said on X, "With this preview, the data is not yet available via the API. Enabling data in our API is on our backlog, and we'll take your feedback along with others, into account when prioritizing next release."

Fabrice Canel from Microsoft said on X, "We just dropped the AI Performance report into public preview in Bing Webmaster Tools." He did hint that more data is coming, he said, "It's just a preview, you will get more in 2026."

Some industry reaction:

OK, they are rolling it out. Here's the announcement: Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview https://t.co/EzAHpsB1a5 pic.twitter.com/rfsnXkvwG8

'" Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 10, 2026

Bing is now giving you grounding queries in Bing Webmaster tools!! Just confirmed, now I gotta understand what we're getting from them, what it means and how to use it. https://t.co/FvKwtjoM2D

Great work @facan and team. I remember when @rustybrick showed that this might be'... pic.twitter.com/6QDmsvWmiq

'" Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) February 10, 2026

We're excited to share new insights that bring more transparency to the web ecosystem. Publishers can now see how their content shows up in the AI era URLs, grounding queries, and page''level performance.
GEO meets SEO, power your strategy with real signalshttps://t.co/0qD1WGwrHn https://t.co/FFRAnZkWRC

'" Fabrice Canel (@facan) February 10, 2026

Getting our first look at real 1st party AI performance data from Bing/CoPilot.

I really hope Google / GPT follows. We need this sort of reporting.https://t.co/YTUFvXLFUW

I just wish Bing/CoPilot actually had users like Google / GPT. pic.twitter.com/mImkWJJKTT

'" imnotadoctor (@imnotadoctor) February 10, 2026

ð¨ Microsoft is Introducing AI Performance in @bing Webmaster Tools: A new set of insights that shows how sites content appears across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations ð'

This is the first official AI search visibility'... pic.twitter.com/35aRoLVSbD

'" Aleyda Solis ðï' (@aleyda) February 10, 2026

Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools has always been more useful and efficient than Google Search Console, and once again, they've proven their commitment to transparency.

Microsoft Bing has just launched the AI Performance Dashboard, which introduces 'citations' and 'cited pages''... pic.twitter.com/hcMOhncW1G

'" Koray TuÄberk GÃBÃR (@KorayGubur) February 10, 2026

Google Search Console : We've given users a new favicon and custom citations.

Bing Webmaster Tools: Hold my beer... pic.twitter.com/dfn1pJpkzQ

'" Nikki Pilkington - non-wanky SEO (@NikkiPilkington) February 11, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Microsoft Bing is testing a dynamically loading results count under the search box. So when you enter your search phrase, the results count will dynamically count up from 0 to the number of results found.

This seems cute and interactive and also a bit gimmicky, but it is cute.

This was spotted by Frank Sandtmann who posted an example on LinkedIn - he wrote, "In a playful move, Bing added a dynamic result count to its pages."

Here is what I see:

Here is his post with his video, which looks a bit more normal for a results count:

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

We covered how horrific the AI-based Frankenstein recipes can be in Google Search, where it mashes up recipe steps from various publishers and acts like it is a real recipe from a source. Well, Bing had something similar but Jordi Ribas from Microsoft said they are "unshipping" the feature after the feedback was received.

Jordi Ribas, Microsoft CVP, Head of Search at Microsoft, wrote on X, "Thanks for the feedback @inspiredtaste. We've been unshipping this feature during the last few weeks. Let me know if you still see it."

This is in response to the folks at Inspired Taste writing, "We are still waiting for the completely made up Bing ingredient substitutions on recipe cards to be removed or have a warning added saying that these aren't our suggestions. We would not recommend substituting ginger with mace in pho. Or any of these suggestions really."

Here is a screenshot of this from a few days ago:

It is nice to see Microsoft Bing listen to feedback and make changes so quickly.

Thanks for the feedback @inspiredtaste. We've been unshipping this feature during the last few weeks. Let me know if you still see it.

'" Jordi Ribas (@JordiRib1) February 6, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Microsoft announced the expansion of the Microsoft Publisher Content Marketplace. This marketplace is designed to give publishers a new revenue stream, provides AI systems with scaled access to premium content, and deliver better responses for consumers. In short, it will pay for using your content in its AI.

If you want to learn more and potentially sign up, you can fill out this interest form.

Here are the key points of Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace:

• Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM) is an early-stage initiative that creates a transparent economic framework for licensing premium content into AI products. The result is a direct value exchange: publishers will be paid on delivered value, and AI builders gain scalable access to licensed premium content that improves their products.
• Publishers define licensing and usage terms, while AI builders discover and license content for specific grounding scenarios. PCM also provides usage-based reporting, enabling publishers to understand how content has been valued in the past and where it can provide increased value in the future, all through a feedback loop within the marketplace.
• Over the past several months, Microsoft has been co-designing PCM with leading U.S. publishers. Their input helped shape early decisions around licensing, pricing, governance, analytics, and onboarding.
• Microsoft will expand PCM to those who share principles that the AI web should respect quality content for the service it provides the consumer, ensuring the work of journalists, creators, and subject-matter experts play a durable role in the future of the AI web.
• Participation is voluntary with clear opt-in and opt-out controls, transparent usage reporting, and publisher-defined licensing terms.

Microsoft said it co-designed PCM with these leading publishers, Business Insider Inc,'¯Condé Nast,'¯Hearst Magazines,'¯People Inc, The Associated Press, USA TODAY Co.,'¯and'¯Vox Media Inc, and more.

I have no screenshots of what this looks like, what the expected revenue would be and any more details but it is something...

Krishna Madhavan, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Bing said on LinkedIn, "As the web shifts from traditional search to conversational, agent-led experiences, content quality and growth of the content ecosystem have never mattered more. Microsoft today announced the Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM) - a meaningful step toward a healthier, more sustainable content ecosystem for the agentic web."

Forum discussion at X.

Bing Search has rolled out what it calls multi-turn search in Bing globally. This is something we saw Microsoft Bing test back in June, when we saw a floating Copilot follow up search box at the footer of the Bing search results page show up as you scroll. It is now globally live for all to use.

Jordi Ribas, CVP, Head of Search at Microsoft, posted this news on X - he said, "After shipping in the US last year, multi-turn search in Bing is now available worldwide." Interesting name for it, "multi-turn search."

Here is a screenshot of what it looks like:

"Bing users don't need to scroll up to do the next query, and the next turn will keep context when appropriate," Jordi Ribas added.

He also said that Microsoft has "seen gains in engagement and sessions per user in our online metrics, which reflect the positive user value of this approach." Sure.

Jordi posted this video of it as well:

To find it, just scroll to the bottom of the search results page and it will appear, as you can see in the video example below. pic.twitter.com/grEOQBTL9w

— Jordi Ribas (@JordiRib1) February 2, 2026

Forum discussion at X.

Microsoft reported its second quarter 2026 earnings and it showed that its search and advertising revenue was up for 10% but growth is down over the past two quarters. The previous quarter it was up 16% and the one before that was 21% and this quarter, it is only up 10%.

Microsoft wrote, "Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 10% (up 9% in constant currency)."

Microsoft reports Q2 revenue up 17% YoY to $81.3B, operating income up 21% to $38.3B, net income up 60% to $38.5B, and Microsoft Cloud revenue up 26% to $51.5B.

Here is the chart I make showing just the ad dollar change from quarter to quarter, so you can see just that:

Here are the highlights from the earnings release:

• Revenue was $81.3 billion and increased 17% (up 15% in constant currency)
• Operating income was $38.3 billion and increased 21% (up 19% in constant currency)
• Net income on a GAAP basis was $38.5 billion and increased 60%, and on a non-GAAP basis was $30.9 billion and increased 23% (up 21% in constant currency)
• Diluted earnings per share on a GAAP basis was $5.16 and increased 60%, and on a non-GAAP basis was $4.14 and increased 24% (up 21% in constant currency)
• Non-GAAP results exclude the impact from investments in OpenAI, explained in the Non-GAAP Definition section below

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said:

'We are only at the beginning phases of AI diffusion and already Microsoft has built an AI business that is larger than some of our biggest franchises," said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. 'We are pushing the frontier across our entire AI stack to drive new value for our customers and partners.'

Forum discussion at X.

Microsoft announced its AI-agents agentic experiences under the names of Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents. Copilot Checkout lets you shop and checkout directly in the Copilot chat experience and Brand Agents lets you add AI-chat experience to your site, and the AI is trained on your product data.

Copilot Checkout is rolling out across the whole Copilot ecosystem including Bing, MSN, Edge, and more.

This comes after both Google announced last year agentic checkout and OpenAI's ChatGPT instant checkout.

The best way to describe them is to show them in action and Microsoft made nice videos of that.

Copilot Checkout

Copilot Checkout is beginning to roll out in the US on Copilot.com and enables conversational purchasing directly in Copilot, with partners including PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, and Etsy. Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled in Copilot Checkout with an option to opt out, and non-Shopify merchants can apply to be onboarded here.

Watch it in action here:

These merchants now support Copilot checkout today, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Ashley Furniture, plus unique and handcrafted items from Etsy sellers, will all be available at launch, Microsoft said. Microsoft is also working with partners like Mastercard and Visa, leveraging solutions like Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce.

Brand Agents

Brand Agents, now available for Shopify merchants, bring a brand's authentic voice into every digital interaction'¯on their website. It is trained on a brand's product catalog, it answers detailed product questions, engages shoppers in natural, brand-aligned conversations, and is ready'¯for Shopify customers'¯to deploy'¯with minimal setup, the company said.

Brand Agents are AI-powered shopping assistants that speak in your brand's voice and guide customers naturally from curiosity to purchase. Deployed in hours'"not weeks'"they turn everyday questions into meaningful conversations that help shoppers discover more, decide faster, and feel confident clicking 'buy.' The result is a more intuitive shopping experience and measurable performance gains. Across merchants, sessions assisted by Brand Agents deliver higher engagement and stronger conversion than sessions without them.

Here is a video:

And there are insights too, analytics:

Here is Navah Hopkins from Microsoft on these changes:

Forum discussion at X.

In September, we posted about a number of local pack design tests from Microsoft Bing. But now, Bing might be testing a more retro, older-looking interface for the local pack in the Bing search results.

This was spotted by Frank Sandtmann who posted this screenshot on LinkedIn:

Frank wrote, "Bing appears to be testing a new (?!) design for its Places results. With the small map, it looks a bit retro."

I cannot replicate this, I've been trying with several browsers over the past few days but I was unsuccessful. So I am not sure if this is a bug, a super limited test or something only being tested regionally.

Again, you can check the more modern tests over here.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

Microsoft is hiring a "very" Senior Product Manager who will initially work on fighting spam across Bing and Copilot. Fabrice Canel said this is a "very" senior PM role and the job description says the "initial focus on reducing Spam in Copilot, Bing, MSN and Ads."

Fabrice Canel, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Bing, wrote on X, "We're hiring a very Senior Product Manager!" He added that "spam is killing trust in AI & search." "Own the fight: reduce spam across Copilot, Bing & the web using AI/ML at internet scale. Protect millions of users, brands & the AI ecosystem. Join us & build a cleaner future," he added.

The job listing is over here and is for a "Senior Product Manager, MAI Platform." It explains:

As a Senior Product Manager, MAI Platform, you will be partner facing and responsible for partner success through delivery management of cross-functional programs, and solid partner and internal'¯stakeholder relationships across feature and product teams. The candidate will focus on defining KPIs for success, doing deep data analysis, writing product specifications and delivering complex large projects.

The first responsibility listed is, "Define & improve Web Data quality for Microsoft AI products with an initial focus on reducing Spam in Copilot, Bing, MSN and Ads."

ð¨ We're hiring a very Senior Product Manager! ð¨ Spam is killing trust in AI & search. Own the fight: reduce spam across Copilot, Bing & the web using AI/ML at internet scale. Protect millions of users, brands & the AI ecosystem. Join us & build a cleaner future! ð"' Apply:'...

'" Fabrice Canel (@facan) January 8, 2026

This week we covered Google hiring a Chief of Staff and an AI answers quality engineer.

Seems like everyone is hiring.

Forum discussion at X.

Microsoft is testing a much larger "Ask Copilot" button on the Bing home page. Normally, Bing only has a small Copilot logo on the right of the search box but in this test, Bing writes it all out - "Ask Copilot" with the logo.

I spotted this last night while doing some testing, here is what the larger Copilot button looks like:

Here is the normal version:

Yesterday we also covered a redesigned Bing home page test that also pushed Copilot.

Forum discussion at X.

Microsoft Bing is testing a new home page design where it promotes its AI-powered search and answer engine, Copilot. It seems to be a limited test and is not fully live yet, but it is a big change to the home page, which normally has the Bing custom background, search box, and the news feed below.

The new home page design was spotted by Khushal Bherwani who posted the following screenshot on X - I tried to replicate this across numerous browsers but I did not see it myself. Here is his screenshot:

As you can see, it says, "Bing is your AI-powered search and answer engine." And then adds, "Introducing Copilot Search: Copilot Search in Bing gives you quick, summarized answers with cited sources and suggestions for further exploration, making it easier than ever to discover more."

This is what I see as the Bing home page today, as a comparison:

Will Bing be replaced by Copilot in 2026?

Forum discussion at X.