Bing Places, AIO Love, No Google Killer, Where's the Decision?

Optimizing for ChatGPT via Bing

There's an ongoing debate about whether and how much ChatGPT is pulling from Google results vs. how reliant it is on Bing. Bing Places is probably in the mix for local but it's unclear how much ChatGPT uses it. It doesn't seem to explicitly cite Bing – ever. After conducting several local searches this morning, I asked it, "do you rely on Bing places for any of this local information?" ChatGPT's answer was, "When I give you local business information (restaurants, painters, dentists, etc.), I do not pull from Bing Places." We probably can't take that at face value but it's interesting. It also said it doesn't rely on Apple Maps or "proprietary databases" such as InfoGroup (old brand, now Data Axle). Let's assume that Bing Places is a data source for ChatGPT. Miriam Ellis and Whitespark looked at "17 local business categories across 9 major US cities" to determine the primary review sources that Bing Places relies upon, which may in turn be helpful for ChatGPT visibility. Facebook, Yelp and Tripadvisor were the most frequently cited. There were other vertical directories cited in specific categories such as healthcare and home services. And Yelp is also often cited in Google's AI mode in many local categories. Regardless of how reliant ChatGPT is on Bing Places in fact, the larger message of the study, review diversification, is increasingly important.