I compared ChatGPT search against Perplexity to see which was the best AI search engine, and the results surprised me
If you’ve been following the news from 12 Days of OpenAI, you know that OpenAI has released the ChatGPT search feature globally as part of its Christmas-themed launch extravaganza.
This means that anyone with a ChatGPT account (you must be logged in to use it) can now access ChatGPT search. OpenAI has also added ChatGPT search to the advanced voice mode, making it faster and better on mobile.
Previously, ChatGPT Search was only available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers and waitlist joiners. Now it is available to everyone. All you have to do to use it is go to ChatGPT.com or open the ChatGPT app on your phone, tap or click the little world icon in the ChatGPT prompt window and a blue ‘Search’ label will appear to indicate that whatever you’re looking for If you then type the following, this becomes a web search and not a typical chatbot interaction.
What actually is an AI search engine?
An AI search engine differs from a conventional search engine, such as Google, in a number of important ways. First, you can use natural, conversational language instead of search terms. We’re all so used to using Google these days that we default to a search term-based language, and if we don’t, it can take some getting used to.
So for example, you can start by asking “what are the best laptops right now?” in the same way you would in a conversation, and when you get the results you can then say, “I want one for gaming” and ChatGPT will know what you’re talking about, and give you some more results.
Second, there are no ads. Some people enjoy sponsored content links in searches because they often give you a link to exactly what you’re looking for, but you won’t find one in the ChatGPT search. It reminds me very much of the early, simpler days of Google.
Bewilderment vs. ChatGPT
The concept of an AI search engine is not that new. There is even another competitor in this space that has been doing this longer than ChatGPT, and that is Perplexity. Perplexity is arguably the original AI search engine. From the start, it was designed to search the web and find results, then give you an accessible and conversational answer.
Now we have two AI search engines competing against each other, so it’s natural that we want to compare them. I chose a few topics to ask about, and I was quite shocked by the results.
I started with: “I love pizza, are there any good pizza places near me?”
I was a little surprised when both search engines initially recommended restaurants that were in my nearest city, rather than near me; But after I told them exactly where I lived, I got better results with both – and very similar results. In fact, they recommended the exact same restaurants. What really surprised me was the amount of detail I got from Perplexity – much more than I got with the ChatGPT search.
On web or mobile, ChatGPT search results appear as a rather boring text-based list. You will receive a simple description of each restaurant and a link to the website; that’s it. In contrast, Perplexity gives you a lot more information, and it’s much more interesting to look at, because each result is divided into subheadings – in this case Address, Highlights, Features and Rating. There are links to the websites and to the reviews online. You can choose to show all resources in a list on the right side of the page, where you will also get a selection of images of the topic you are looking for.
It was the same when I tried other searches, such as: “Who will be the next James Bond?”, or “What laptop should I buy for Christmas?”. The ChatGPT search results were sparse and lacking in detail, while the Perplexity results had many more links to resources and simply felt more fleshed out and informed.
My overall recommendation? Bewilderment is better. Both search engines returned similar results in terms of the resources found, but Perplexity presents the information in a better way and with more detail, making it easy to move on to the next thing you’re likely looking for, such as a review.
Sorry, ChatGPT search – you’re good, but you’re still new to this game and Perplexity currently has the edge.