ChatGPT's New Shopping Research Experience

ChatGPT shipped its Shopping Research product today, some initial takes, hot off the presses…

If you want to see it yourself, try searches like "Help me find [product type]..." and it should trigger the new experience. You have to be logged in. Here’s my example:

Quick takes:

1. When you ask about a product, e.g. "best moisturizer with SPF protection", the app prompts you for more information. SPF 30, 45, or 60? Preferred texture? Your skin type? Do you like this brand or this other brand? In other words, the model is adding a LOT of specific context to the prompt. If you tell the model you don't want a product, it asks why - do you dislike the brand? Is it too expensive? This likely creates a ton more variance in recommendations. And factors in brand loyalty a bit more.
2. It's kind of like deep research for consumer products - gathers a lot of input from you, leverages your previous search history, and then comes back with detailed analysis.
3. The output takes a long time. In the attached video, it takes about 3 minutes to get through the process, 90+ seconds to get the response. I think that likely limits the number of times consumers use this. To buy a car or a computer? Sure. For moisturizer or a toothbrush - seems less likely.
4. As the model is thinking, it highlights trivia facts, like when the first sunscreen was invented. Have to wonder - is this where the ads go?? 

More to come as we dig in.