How long will you Google something on the internet? That’s a question that’s been repeatedly asked by tech-savvy consumers eager to look for something fresh. In an age where AI chatbots are taking over the internet with a promise to redefine your online experience, an old-school search engine like Google faces the heat.
A little over a year ago, AI chatbots came into the picture, promising increasing capabilities and smarter solutions to the younger generation. A promise of giving solution-based responses to your queries in a human language, instead of showing a collection of web links, came across as a sudden breath of fresh air. Suddenly, people realised that they can rely on their ‘search engine’ to not only do the search but also come up with a solution, thus reducing the step of collating all the information manually from various sources.
In contrast, Google Search suddenly seemed underequipped and, to some, less capable. But is that genuinely the case? Do AI-based web search solutions like Perplexity and ChatGPT offer more, or are they masking their incapabilities well?
But let’s answer the most crucial question first:
What is a search engine?
A search engine is a software that searches through the World Wide Web and finds your desired information. Think of it as a personal assistant that takes your query and looks up the internet to find the desired news articles, websites, blogs, videos, social media links, and web apps relevant to your search phrase.
Search engines rely on mechanisms like crawling and indexing to find the most relevant answers to your queries. They go through vast swathes of content and rank them according to the relevance to the search query (which is why publishers have to follow good Search Engine Optimization practices to rank within the first page, that too on top). Legacy search engines like Google and Yahoo rely on this technique to show you relevant webpages.
AI search engines: Making the case for Perplexity, ChatGPT
In case you were wondering what an AI search engine is, think of it as Google Search that responds like your personal assistant would. Similar to legacy search engines, AI search engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT search through the web for answers to your queries. Instead of showing just the relevant webpages and hyperlinks, these AI search engines use generative AI models to use the search data and formulate the answer in a language that you can easily comprehend.
Hence, if you search for a recipe to bake a chocolate cake, an AI search engine will give you the steps and explain everything in detail, all while showing the relevant references.
There are several benefits to relying on AI search engines, starting with:
Conversational answers:
Who doesn’t like a conversation, even if you are looking for a recipe? AI search engines like Perplexity excel at providing direct and summarised answers to complex questions, often with citations to mimic a conversation with an expert. Compared to a search page with ten ‘blue web links’, this seems more desirable.
Transparency
If you search for anything on Perplexity, the answers always contain links to sources, thus maintaining transparency in the responses. This makes it helpful for users to verify the information, cross-checking whether the source can be trusted for their informational needs.
Distraction and Ad-free
This is a boon, at least for now. On Perplexity, the search responses are often free from advertisements and links to advertised products. For someone engrossed in critical research, a clean presentation always helps.
Research friendly
Unlike Google or Bing, Perplexity and ChatGPT are designed to facilitate research. Hence, regardless of the most complex topics, these AI search engines can synthesize quality output from multiple verified sources, thus speeding up the research process. For students, content creators, and researchers, nothing is more rewarding than a tool that eradicates some of the chore from their daily workflow.
So, where does Google stand in comparison?
While the initial picture painted by AI search engines seems impressive, the good-old Google still has some tricks up its sleeves.
Real-time news
Nothing beats Google when it comes to the speed of breaking news (let’s excuse X for being a micro vlogging portal). Google’s reliable crawling abilities allow the search engine to look through popular webpages every instant, and hence, you get the latest breakthroughs in any topic on Google before other sources. AI search engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT take their time to crawl through new updates and consider those sources for answers.
Simple queries:
For a query as basic as a weather enquiry or searching a website, Google is more efficient and faster. Even for simple search phrases and website names, Google gets it the fastest. Perplexity and ChatGPT won’t give such reliable responses as quickly as Google!
Superior ecosystem integration
Unlike Perplexity or ChatGPT, legacy search engines like Google and Bing have other services integrated into their search functions. For example, if you look for “chinese cuisine ideas”, Google and Bing will show you relevant webpages along with map links to nearest restaurants that serve them, links to reference images, shortcuts to YouTube/Bing videos with more related suggestions, and more. You even get a peek into more related search terms and queries, thus helping you get a better idea. Hence, you get a more wholesome search experience with legacy search engines.
Google search has no bias
With AI models, you always run the risk of your AI agent developing some kind of bias, depending on the kind of training data provided to these models. Hence, AI search engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT may come up with inaccurate answers to questions, thus raising concerns over output validity. Even though the answers have sources attached, AI bots can run the risk of following the wrong sources for giving answers, thus questioning the legitimacy. A legacy search engine like Google doesn’t do that – it relies on SEO rankings and trusted publisher sources to give you the most relevant and accurate results. You only get links to sources that match your query.
Conclusion: Is the old school search engine still relevant?
The answer is more complex than we’d assumed it might be. AI is swiftly integrating itself with all aspects of our lives, and web search engines won’t be spared. In fact, there is a high possibility of AI agents wiping out conventional web search engines as we know them in the future!
However, we are concerned about the present, and that’s where the old-school search engine still triumphs. Modern AI search engines offer a refreshing take on web searches, replacing the machine language-inspired hyperlink-based responses with ones that are easier for humans to comprehend. AI search engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT offer in-depth insight and analysis to any topic, along with reliable verification. For those seeking a refreshingly new approach to web search for their research and knowledge expansion, these AI search engines are certainly a great place to spend time.
Legacy search engines like Google and Bing, on the other hand, offer reliability and speed owing to their simpler result presentation. If you need to search for anything on the internet quickly, your Google Search remains a reliable medium for the time being.
That said, Google is also integrating generative AI search responses, dubbed AI Overview, into its search pages for select kinds of queries. The unique combination of conventional search engine outcome mated to an AI response makes it a great solution for the present, offering a quick explanation along with a bunch of conventional web links.