Three months after Microsoft Bing promised to add Bing Chat data in Bing Webmaster Tools, we still do not have it. Yesterday I asked the Bing team, once again, for an update on this release, and I initially received a “nothing more to share” statement, so I wrote this up at Search Engine Land, saying Bing Chat data may never come to Bing Webmaster Tools.
Then after I published that story, Microsoft reached back out and said it “is committed to launching Bing Chat data in Webmaster Tools.”
In February Fabrice Canel from Microsoft teased that Bing Chat data would be in Webmaster Tools, which was amazing news we were all delighted to hear. Then in April, Bing told us the data would come in May. Then May ended and Bing said just a few more weeks and showed off this blurry screenshot of the data in Bing Webmaster Tools:
I’ve been following up since then but everyone has been radio silent since. So I decided to go through the PR route and email Microsoft’s PR team.
I was first told, “Microsoft has nothing more to share on Bing Chat data in Bing Webmaster Tools at this time.” Then after I published my story at Search Engine Land, Microsoft replied again, saying they are “committed to launching Bing Chat data in Webmaster Tools.”
I was initially shocked Bing would share this data, as we all expect the click-through rate and overall clicks from Bing Chat to be next to zero. Google likely won’t share SGE data in Google Search Console, I’d be floored if they do. But Bing said they would.
I suspect the delay is not technical (I can be very wrong) but more political in that the data would be horrid. I suspect it will show that publishers get almost no traffic from Bing Chat, with crazy low CTR. But again, without seeing the data, it is hard to say for sure. Maybe Bing is thinking up ways to show the data in a better light???
Anyway, I do hope Bing does add Bing Chat data in Bing Webmaster Tools but I do understand why they wouldn’t – I don’t expect it to look pretty.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
