Technologies

ChatGPT Search Improves Its Shopping Experience

It’s a direct shot at Google’s Search-powered shopping tools.

ChatGPT Search, OpenAI’s AI-powered competitor to Google Search, is getting enhanced shopping features, including the ability to search for products, compare options and buy directly within ChatGPT, the company said in a press release Monday.

Users will see personalized recommendations, visual product details, pricing and product reviews. As with other ChatGPT queries, ChatGPT Search will, in the coming weeks, retain memory of users’ past shopping experiences and consider context from past conversations to help tailor a personalized experience.

Read more: Best AI Chatbots of 2025

ChatGPT Search will also provide direct links for products. This shopping experiment will include products in fashion, beauty, home goods and electronics, expanding the shopping categories as it learns more. OpenAI says it doesn’t make any affiliate revenue.

This feature is available to all ChatGPT users, including ones not logged in, via the GPT-4o model. OpenAI said the changes are now available in 4o, and beginning to roll out as of Monday to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Free and logged-out users.

A representative for OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Status of search

Online search is big business, and Google is currently the king of search, with 89.74% market share, according to Statcounter. With the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, more people have been turning to AI chatbots to satiate their online search demand.

Where traditional online searches rely on keywords and users filtering through sites to find the information they want, AI chatbots allow users to directly ask questions and get complete answers in the process.

Last year, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search, a version of its AI chatbot that also searches the internet for up-to-date information. There are other players in the AI-powered online search game, including Perplexity and You.com. Google has also added AI into its core search product with AI Overviews, an experience that’s still producing incorrect information.

Google remains highly popular, seeing about 14 billion searches per day. While ChatGPT is seeing 500 million active weekly users, its popularity still pales in comparison to Google’s. Currently, Google is pulling in 373 times more searches than ChatGPT, according to SparkToro.

Search brought in $198 billion in revenue last year, thanks to ads and shopping recommendations placed against user queries. If OpenAI does aggressively monetize shopping recommendations in the future, it could eat away at Google revenues, as well as revenues from sites that make money from reviewing and recommending products.

ChatGPT Search is getting some other improvements as well. WhatsApp users can now send messages directly to ChatGPT within the app. It’s a peculiar integration considering WhatsApp owner Meta already has MetaAI baked into its apps. ChatGPT Search will also allow users to see trending search topics.

The regular version of ChatGPT is seeing improved citations as well, with the ability to cite multiple sources.

Technologies

The Infamous Home Depot Giant Skeleton Has a Voice This Halloween Thanks to a New App

It may be half the size of the traditional giant skelly, but the latest version has animated features and can talk.

Spooky season is here, and we’re only 10 days away from Halloween — so it’s past time to set up your decorations if you haven’t already. And this year, Home Depot’s infamous giant skeleton has returned with an app that gives the new Ultra Skelly a voice and fresh moves to spook trick-or-treaters.

Make no bones about it: Skelly is high-tech this year. The new animatronic version is shorter than the original, at 6.5 feet tall, but you can freak out your whole neighborhood with this skeleton’s rotating upper torso, moving mouth and 18 LCD eye variations (ew).

Skelly, available for sale on the Home Depot website or app for $279, now allows visitors to chat with you through five preset recordings and up to 30 seconds of custom recordings, plus Bluetooth capabilities that enable real-time interaction. And you can modulate your voice to make everything sound extra spooky.

Skelly was launched in 2020, when the pandemic forced people to celebrate Halloween at a distance. Perhaps because of its giant stature — it was easy to spot, even when social distancing — the skeleton became a hit and has been resurrected every year since with upgrades and friends. This year, those friends include dragons, trolls, scarecrows and a Skelly Cat (not to be confused with Smelly Cat).

Technologies

Verum E-SIM: Mobile Internet Without Borders or SIM Cards

Today’s travelers are choosing freedom — and eSIM technology delivers exactly that. An eSIM is a virtual SIM card built directly into your device, allowing you to connect to the internet without a physical card or a mobile phone number.

Verum E-SIM is an entire ecosystem of high-tech applications, bringing together solutions like World E-SIM, Euro E-SIM, USA E-SIM, Turkiye E-SIM, London E-SIM, and more. Each of them offers instant access to mobile networks in over 150 countries — no roaming, no overpayments, no paperwork.

The main advantage is simplicity. Download the app, choose your country and plan, activate your eSIM in just a few minutes — and you’re online. No stores, no waiting, no contracts. Just you, the internet, and the freedom to travel your way.

Verum’s eSIMs offer reliability, transparency, and full control of your expenses — all in one app. Whether you’re in Tokyo, New York, Paris, or Nairobi, you’ll always stay connected.

Verum E-SIM Apps:

Verum E-SIM – esim.verum.im

World E-SIM – worldesim.me

USA E-SIM – usa.esim.verum.im

Canada E-SIM – canada.esim.verum.im

Euro E-SIM – euro.esim.verum.im

London E-SIM – london.esim.verum.im

Ukraine E-SIM – ukraine.esim.verum.im

Balkan E-SIM – balkan.esim.verum.im

Africa E-SIM – africa.esim.verum.im

Turkiye E-SIM – turkiyesim.com

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, Oct. 21

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 21.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword features a lot of one certain letter. Need help? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.