Throughout this year, quite a few AI search engines have been launched one after another, and even ChatGPT Search has already been introduced. Compared to traditional search, AI search can save more time by directly summarizing content from multiple web pages. Although there may still be a possibility of errors at present, it still saves much more time than traditional search when it comes to organizing information.
If you haven’t used them yet, or want to know which AI search engines are worth using right now, this article rounds up the 4 most famous and currently best AI search engines.
1. Perplexity
Perplexity was launched back in 2022 as a search-engine-focused service, so the AI models it uses are also optimized for search engines.
Provides two search modes: “General” and “Pro.” When “Pro” search is enabled, Perplexity conducts deeper and broader research before providing answers, so compared to General, the answers are not only more accurate but also richer.
The free version gives you 3 Pro search credits, and once you’ve used them up, they reload every 4 hours. For the average user, I think that’s plenty.
You can find the results you want using natural language, and you can also specify the language of the search sources you want. For example, if I want to find out when each ChatGPT feature was released, there may not be much Chinese content on this topic, and I’m worried it might not be accurate enough, so I can add “please search in English for me” at the end, and Perplexity will convert my query into an English search.
You can also ask for answers to be translated into Chinese, and add “Please convert the reply into Traditional Chinese.” I often use this trick with Perplexity to get more accurate information.
When Perplexity answers, it also provides the source websites it searched, so you can quickly check whether the content is correct and explore related follow-up questions. It can also, for the current question, search videos and generate images with one click. Video search uses YouTube, while image generation is limited to paid members.
Besides search, Perplexity also offers writing, academic, video, math, and community features, among which the community feature is particularly noteworthy. Currently, search sources are all from the well-known site Reddit, so if you have any information you want to know whether Reddit has, using Perplexity is very convenient.
Further Reading:Super useful! AI search engine “Perplexity”
2. ChatGPT Search
ChatGPT Search has only just officially launched recently. Although it’s much later than Perplexity, after using it these past few days, I have to say it’s pretty good. Not only is it accurate, but it also decides whether to search webpages in other languages based on my current search content.
However, it doesn’t support specifying a language for search yet. For example, if you add English search at the end, it will still search in Chinese.
It will also provide the source websites for the search, but there are no follow-up questions, meaning you can only rely on your own input.
ChatGPT Search is currently only available to paid members, and the free version doesn’t support it yet. However, OpenAI has said that it will be rolled out to the free version in the coming months, though it’s unclear whether there will be any restrictions.
Further Reading:OpenAI officially launches ChatGPT Search feature
3. Felo
Felo is relatively lesser-known, and I believe very few people have heard of it. It’s an AI search engine developed by a Japanese company, and its interface is very similar to Perplexity. For those who regularly use Perplexity, it should feel quite familiar.
It also has “General” and “Pro” search options; the free version can use Pro search too, with 5 credits per day, and once you run out, you have to wait until the next day.
In addition to text answers, search results also include images, videos, and source websites. Of course, there are also related follow-up questions. What’s more unique is that it also offers a one-click function to turn the answer content into a “mind map.”
Additionally, the one-click copy answer feature comes in two versions: plain text and regular text. When you paste as plain text, the 1, 2, 3 numbers from the source website won’t appear, which is quite nice.
Currently provides 8 search scopes: Internet, social media, academic information, conversations, documents, Xiaohongshu, Reddit, X.
For social media, it can search Facebook, and you can also specify searches on Xiaohongshu and X — that’s really nice. Compared to Perplexity, I think this one is better suited for Taiwanese users.
Moreover, the search doesn’t just cover Chinese websites—it also searches sites in different languages. When checking sources, foreign websites are automatically translated into Chinese, which is quite thoughtful.
As for accuracy, I think it’s on par with Perplexity and ChatGPT Search.
Further Reading:Experience Using Felo Search Generative AI Search Engine
4. Google AI Overviews
Image source:mashable
The AI search feature launched by Google appears directly above Google search results. Although it has already been rolled out in Taiwan, it does not support Chinese yet—only certain languages, such as English, are supported. Moreover, not all questions receive AI answers; some only show regular Google search results.
Also, you can’t keep asking follow-up questions, so I find it less useful than the three mentioned above. Plus, Google search results include ads, while Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and Felo currently don’t.
Of course, the main drawback is still that it can’t be used in Chinese; it just depends on whether it can change people’s minds after it launches.
Can the browser be set up to use an AI search engine?
Okay, this introduction’s Perplexity、ChatGPT Search and Felo All of these can be changed to the browser’s default search engine in the browser settings—just type what you want to search in the address bar, and it will automatically open the webpage and perform the search.
Google AI Overviews is directly integrated with Google search results, so no additional setup is needed. If the language you’re using and the question are supported, Google search results will show AI answers.
Each browser’s setup method is a bit different; you can click the hyperlink above to read the setup process for mainstream browsers.
What’s the difference between AI search engines and traditional search engines?
Traditional search engines mainly rely on algorithms, which rank search results based on various factors such as keyword relevance, content depth, how frequently the page is referenced by other websites, user interaction patterns, and page load speed.
The search results only show the title and the summary snippets extracted by Google, so users have to enter the webpage to find out what the content is about and whether it meets their needs.
AI search engines are different. In addition to using algorithms to retrieve relevant content like traditional search engines, they also feed the webpage content to an AI model, which organizes and summarizes the key points based on your question, and then tries to answer you.
Therefore, for some simple questions, you may not need to read the sources to get the answers, saving a lot of time.
Moreover, when searching, you don’t need to provide keywords like with a traditional engine to get answers. AI understands natural language, so you can simply talk to it in a conversational way, tell it what you want to know, and get a response.
Can AI search engines completely replace traditional search engines?
For now, I don’t think so, because in many cases you just want to find a specific website, like Computer King Ada (電腦王阿達). With Google, you can immediately find it and get in, whereas an AI search engine would take more time since it still searches multiple websites and compiles the results.
Then you also have to click “View Source” before you can get to the site, which makes the process quite a bit more cumbersome.
There are still many things that AI cannot answer when you ask it, and you still need to read each source website, and there’s a good chance the sources AI finds are incorrect. In that case, it’s more suitable to switch to a traditional search engine, and it saves more time, as you rely on your own judgment to decide which content is worth clicking into and reading.
Source: KOCPC Chinese