I made Perplexity AI my default browser for 48 hrs.
What happens if you ask Perplexity instead of Google? In the end, it's an "answer machine". Let's try.
Inspired by the hype around Perplexity, I ran a quick 48-hour experiment.
I changed my default browser to Perplexity and tried to stick with it for 2 days.
Spoiler: I ended up cheating opening Google in 3 hours.
Here are a few snapshots of my runs and what I learned from changing a search engine to an AI-enabled search tool.
But first things first -
What's Perplexity AI?
It is an AI-based search engine that aspires to rival Google. It is a blend of GPT and a browser, allowing you to ask questions while navigating the internet. A lot of people rave about it and it's definitely gained traction.
Now back to my tests.
Run 1. Turns out, it's slow at predicting 🙄🙄
For example, it didn't catch that I was searching for Perplexity-the-AI, not perplexity as a concept.
Google did.
Score: 0/10 for not guessing my intention.
Run 2. What if I don't want the summary?
In this search, I wanted to be flooded with options from WordHippo to make brainstorming easier. Perplexity summarized and narrowed my options and got me the opposite result of what I desired.
Score: 4/10 for guessing it right, but still not serving the entire experience of WordHippo.
Run 3. Not skimmable text. A lot of it.
In this query, I was looking for a company called Serotonin, but instead, hit a wall of medical text.
My actual prompt should have been: "I received a cold email from a company called Serotonin, can you check if they have any online presence?"
Score: 2/10 for serving one-sided results, not guessing, and bad formatting.
Run 4. I didn't get that one piece of information I needed.
I was looking up a movie. When I typed a title, I was hoping for an IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ranking.
It's literally the only thing I need and I'm always guaranteed to get.
With “Answer machines” like Perplexity you need to ask that question that you have in the back of your mind.
But…why do I go to an “answer machine” if I can google one word and get a better answer?
Thanks for the summary though.
Score: 3/10 for not giving enough details and not supporting your answer with social proof.
Run 5. Exact instructions: bingo 💥
When prompted with an exact technical issue, it does an excellent job of skimming top searches and giving the exact answer I need.
Score: 10/10.
Perplexity VS Google search?
Let's try to draw some conclusions.
It's not marketed as a search engine, but it works like one.
It's meant to be your co-pilot. And over time, we'll see more co-pilots emerging around. For free, for sale, and for hire (back to autonomous agents, right).
To become Google rival, it will need to wait till our browsing habits will change under the influence of GPT and co.
How much time is it going to take?..
AI-enabled search needs an entirely different prompting.
It might be a nightmare for some, especially for those of us who don't type fast enough.
It's maybe a blessing for those who love chatting with machines: now you can also have a conversation with a browser.
To give you a good answer, it needs much more context.
Perplexity may be better at analyzing your question, but it's pretty poor at guessing your true intent.
But most of it is not about the tool, it's actually about how we use it.
Why?
Simple:
You might not realize your search patterns until you have to change them.
I confess.
I was not aware that so many of my searches were one-word searches until I had to explain to a new tool what exactly I needed to know.
That is, until the day when I started this experiment and suddenly became conscious of what I typed in the search bar.
We are so used to having Google guess our intent that we don't bother trying to formulate a question. We don't add enough detail if there's a one-word search alternative.
We're all hooked to predictive algorithms.
Are you not?
Do you need answers or do you want to own the research?
Perplexity AI is good at giving you the "most common answer", and clearing up the mess. Visually and contextually.
But if you are after the complexity of the picture and want the noise, it's not your default choice.
It's not browsing-friendly
This is the only way to leave the page.
Since it was not made for browsing, it's unlikely you will even read what the little “source” buttons say.
Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo are made for navigating the internet. That's their bread and butter.
Perplexity keeps you on-page.
"Sources" is the only way out of this page, and this exit doesn't look very compelling.
Bottom line.
Does it make life easier?
Not for browsing.
I ended up opening good old Google all the time.
Want to try the same experiment and share your thoughts?
Super interesting. Thanks a lot for sharing.