Like many people, I naturally lacks Google as my search engine for choice. It is not by the lack of trying competition. I used DuckduckGo, brave and a selection of competitors, but the attraction of different unique sales arguments has never managed to move away from Google’s ease.
However, there is a more recent and potentially more interesting competitor that could change it. Perplexity is part of the recent wave of AI chatbots that have emerged in recent years, except that it is slightly different.
Where Chatgpt, Gemini and Claude have all positioned themselves as chatbots to help answer your endless list of questions and tasks, perplexity arrives for search engines, offering an AI approach for research.
He uses AI models and sources on the Internet to provide answers to your requests. Consider this as a crucible between Google and Chatgpt, offering detailed answers to each thought that crosses your mind.
So how did I find perplexity and can she replace Google in my life? I tidy up Google and went to perplexity for a month to see if it is really the future.
Search with perplexity: good
Perplexity works in a very similar way to the overview of the Google AI. Ask him a question and he will provide a detailed answer, offering a complete answer, as well as a list of sources to show where his information comes from. You can even see the route it took to finish your request.
Perplexity prosperous when you need a lot of information. I found it particularly useful in some cases – first of all, purchasing advice.
“Is an Oura subscription worth it?” I was a question that made my mind since he dug an old Oura ring from my office in order to become a healthy member of the company.
Perplexity gave me an answer from a page, covering the advantages, costs and considerations, a summary and related questions to be asked. After clicking on a few related questions, I was fully informed of everything I needed to know.
Likewise, this style of search engine is ideal for advice on how to do things. By looking for Authority Passe-time sites, Reddit forums and expert guides, perplexity helped me confuse garden tasks, repair things around my house and develop mixtures of spice for cooking.
Apart from the research functions, Perplexity also offers a discovery tool. This is looking on the Internet for great news and interesting subjects that are underway. What I particularly like about this is that perplexity will scan several sources for this, by compiling a report of what happened with a range of sources of information.
Research with perplexity: the big
With the introduction of the overview of Google AI, perplexity is not as unique compared to Google as in the past. I would say that perplexity does better work and is more intuitive, but not necessarily radically different.
However, perplexity mixes the worlds of AI and is looking for other ways. One of its best characteristics is its inclusion of in -depth research. It is an increasingly functionality in AI, assuming more complicated research tasks while putting more time and efforts in its reflection.
It is an excellent replacement for rabbit holes that you sometimes have to go with Google. I have often found myself solving all the questions that I had at once, where before I would have crossed wikipedia pages and items.
Perplexity also offers other features such as spaces, where you can transform the AI model into a super personalized source. For example, you can load it with papers and articles on the moon and have space to be an incredibly specific answering machine on this subject.
This is particularly useful for niche subjects incredibly for which chatgpt is too concentrated. For example, give him a selection of interviews on a famous individual, and perplexity can answer questions only using information from these interviews.
Although this is a fun functionality (and very similar to what you get from Google’s notebooklm), this is not the one I ended up using a lot. This seems better suited to students or those who try to study on very niche materials.
A characteristic of the perplexity that stands out is the ability to modify AI models. OPENAI, Claude and Grok all have models available via perplexity, allowing you to change things in what works best with your request.
Research with perplexity: the bad
Okay, therefore the drawbacks. Even if perplexity is strongly supported by online sources, it can always make the mistake that we most often see with AI. Hallucinations, or in other words, when an AI makes a mistake. During the time I use perplexity as the main search engine, I have not seen, but it is a risk that must be kept in mind.
More importantly, compared to Google, perplexity cannot end on your orders. For example, although he can tell you the instructions to arrive somewhere, he must outsource showing a Google card.
Ask for a location and the perplexity will give you the address, but this is the limit. The same thing happens with the reservation of anything or to make a purchase.
Compared to Google, this is the main problem with perplexity: this can only bring you so far. This is particularly notable when you try to do everything that requires a second step beyond the search engine.
Often, I found myself using Google anyway because I hit a roadblock with the path of perplexity.
This is a problem of perplexity and other AI chatbots are trying to remedy, adding purchases integrated into their skills and, potentially, below, we could see reservations and integrated cards.
However, for the moment, perplexity must often give Google anyway to perform this type of tasks.
It made me share between the two. Now, I very often use the perplexity for requests that do not require another step. This includes product criticisms, advice on how to do things and queries on the world.
However, if I’m trying to buy something, go somewhere or book something, Perplexity is just not there.
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