OpenAI launched a new feature called Shopping Research. It creates personalized buying guides based on your questions, your preferences, and what ChatGPT already knows about you. It asks a few clarifying questions, pulls info from the internet, and then gives you sorted recommendations, comparisons, and options.
You can use it to:
- find new products
- compare models
- look for cheaper alternatives
- find gifts
- look for deals
OpenAI recently partnered with Walmart, Etsy, Shopify, and Target, but they say the results are not sponsored. There is no checkout inside the tool yet, but they might connect it with Instant Checkout later.
Ads might be coming to ChatGPT
This week also, developers found code in the beta Android app that suggests ads are actively being worked on. Mentions like “ads feature,” “search ad,” “search ads carousel,” and “bazaar content” started showing up in the files.
Early guess:
- ads will show up mainly around search, shopping, and recommendations
- probably product cards similar to what Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity already do
- free users may get more generous usage, while paid users stay ad-free
Sam Altman has been unsure about ads in the past. He said many times he doesn’t like ads, but he also said he’s open to trying something if it actually helps users.
