OpenAI released ChatGPT Search, a text-based search engine, in their chatbot last month after keeping it in prototype for a while. However, the feature has only been available for paid ChatGPT users till now. Some free users who were on the early access list for the SearchGPT prototype were also given access, but that was about it. As I said previously in my review of ChatGPT Search, this limited its potential to be adopted as a mainstream search engine.

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Of course, OpenAI did know that and they always had plans to bring the product to everyone eventually. That day has arrived today. Day 8 of OpenAI's ship-mas brings ChatGPT Search to all free logged-in users along with some other updates. It's important to note that you still should be logged in to be able to use ChatGPT Search and other features, such as Canvas, which is now also available for free users.

The rollout will be taking place today, so keep a lookout for the 'Globe' icon on your ChatGPT interface wherever you use it – web, desktop app, or mobile app.

There are also some minor improvements to ChatGPT Search, especially on mobile. It's now faster than before. On mobile, the results now also appear more like a traditional search engine. When searching for businesses on mobile, the information is better organized with addresses (in Apple Maps in the ChatGPT iOS app), phone numbers, timings, etc.

Source: OpenAI

But the rest of the experience is the same as before. You can either manually trigger ChatGPT Search using the 'Globe' icon or ChatGPT will decide depending on the query when to get information from the Internet.

OpenAI has also made it easy to make ChatGPT your default search engine from your ChatGPT account itself. If you don't want to make it your default search engine, you can also add it as a custom search engine to your browser.

ChatGPT Search is now also integrated with Advanced Voice Mode. So, while talking to ChatGPT, you can now get up-to-date information from around the Internet. This comes after the company also finally released Vision for Advanced Voice Mode, giving ChatGPT access to real-time video through camera feed and screen sharing.

All ChatGPT Plus and Pro users can also now access Sora; the company had to suspend new sign-ups initially after the release due to overwhelming demand but it's all sorted now.

All in all, OpenAI's 12 days of ship-mas is shaping out to be a great event for users, with small and big updates being bestowed.