Bing Webmaster Tools adds Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare

Microsoft has officially launched a preview of updated AI performance reports within Bing Webmaster Tools, introducing four new features: Intents, Topics, Citation Share, and Compare. While the company initially demoed these capabilities in late April, the rollout to users is now underway. This expansion builds on the AI performance report that Bing first introduced back in February, well ahead of Google’s more recent and seemingly reactive addition of similar AI reporting to Search Console in June.

According to Krishna Madhavan from Microsoft, “These new capabilities build on that foundation by helping publishers better understand why their content is being surfaced, which broader subject areas they are gaining visibility in, how their presence evolves relative to other cited sources, and how citation patterns change over time.”

Intent is the first new feature. It classifies grounding queries in the AI Performance Report into broader categories like Informational, Commercial, Navigational, Learn and Solve, Research, Creation, Local, and more. This classification helps publishers grasp the intent behind the prompt or query that triggered a citation. Madhavan explained, “This helps publishers move beyond simply seeing which queries triggered citations and begin understanding the broader query context our systems associate with those citation appearances.” For instance, an e-commerce publisher might discover strong visibility in comparison or shopping-focused AI experiences, while an educational publisher may find their content frequently surfaced in research or learning interactions. These insights allow publishers to better align content structure and depth with the types of AI-driven experiences where their material is being used.

Topics groups related grounding queries into broader thematic clusters. Microsoft notes that AI systems reason across concepts and themes rather than isolated keywords. By organizing data into topics, publishers can understand their visibility within the same thematic structure that modern AI systems use to organize information. For example, queries like “solar panels,” “solar energy efficiency,” and “residential solar installation” might all map into a broader topic cluster like Solar Energy. “This creates a more natural way to analyze AI visibility. Content teams and publishers often think in terms of themes, editorial areas, and audience interests rather than isolated keywords. Topics help bridge that gap by turning grounding query data into a more thematic view of AI engagement,” Microsoft wrote. A caveat during the preview phase is that some labels may still be broad, especially for highly specialized or niche domains, but the system is already revealing meaningful thematic patterns.

Citation Share is a new metric that shows how much of the citation space your site receives for a specific grounding query. It is calculated as the percentage of citations attributed to your site out of all citations shown across all sites for that same query. “This helps publishers understand not just whether they were cited, but how much visibility they received within the full set of cited sources for that query,” Microsoft explained. The company added that this metric can provide a directional view into how visibility is evolving over time, helping publishers identify areas where their content has strong and growing representation in AI-generated experiences, as well as areas where visibility may be fragmented across many sources. Importantly, Citation Share is designed as an observational metric, not a ranking system or competitive scoreboard. It does not expose competitor domains, represent traffic share, or assign quality scores to content.

Microsoft also emphasized that AI citation ecosystems are inherently dynamic, with patterns shifting due to changes in user behavior, evolving models, freshness signals, partner refresh cycles, and broader changes across the web.

Finally, the Compare feature allows publishers to overlay a previous time period directly onto the current reporting view, making it easier to observe changes over time. “Compare is designed to help publishers observe changes over time. Citation activity can be influenced by many factors including evolving AI models, competing content, freshness signals, and shifts in user demand,” Microsoft wrote.

Why we care: While click and click-through rate data remain absent from both Bing and Google’s AI reports, Microsoft continues to add meaningful layers to its AI performance reporting. I remain hopeful that click data will eventually arrive, but I am not expecting to see that from either Google or Microsoft anytime soon. For now, these new features offer publishers a richer understanding of their AI visibility and the context behind citations.